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COKRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



1 — In Starland 



IN 

STARLAND 



by 

FANNIE DICKERSON 
CHASE 



"The heavens declare the glory of God ; and 
the firmament showeth His handiwork." 

*— Psalm 19:1. 



1922 

Printed in U. S. A. 

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL. 

Kansas City, Mo. Portland, Ore. St. Paul, Minn. 

Brookfleld, 111. Cristobal, C. Z. 






afcfV 



Copyright 1922 by 
Pacific Press Publishing Association 



MAR 15 '22 

§)CU659163 



FOREWORD 

There are many books on astronomy, a 
large number of which have been prepared by 
the great astronomers of the day, for use as 
textbooks. Some, however, tell the story of 
the heavens in a fascinating way for the 
general reader; but all of them, without ex- 
ception, give credence to unscriptural theories 
of creation. "In Starland" was written that 
our young people might have the story of 
the heavens purged from the erroneous ideas 
that pervade more pretentious books. 

The author desires that the reader, while 
learning of the glories of the sky, may always 
be cognizant of the most important truth of 
all, — that the worlds came not by chance or 
evolution, but were framed by the word of 
God; that He spoke and they "stood fast." 

The purpose of this volume is merely to 
outline to the reader the story of the heavens 
as revealed in the combined research work 
of the world's leading astronomers. Only in 
a general way, therefore, can the author give 
credit where credit is due. 



(5) 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I, The Universe - - - - 11 

II. Growth of Astronomical Knowledge - 17 

III. Circles and Measurements 

of the Celestial Sphere - - 44 

IV. "The Day-Star" - - - - 55 
V. The Wanderers - - - 70 

VI. The Planetary Home of Man - - 81 

VII. "The Soundless World" - - 111 

VIII. The Superior Planets - - - 128 

IX. "The Runaways of the Sky" - - 157 

4 

X. "The Jewels of the Sky" - - - 175 

XI. The Constellations - 205 

XII. Spectroscope and Spectra - 230 

XIII. "The Worlds and the Word" - - 241 



(?) 



A. L 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

North American Nebula ------- 10 

The Great Egyptian Pyramids ----- 18 

Orion, the Hare, and Taurus ----- 20 

The Little Dipper -------- 21 

The Big Dipper --------- 22 

The Little Dog --------- 22 

Diagram Illustrating Kepler's First and 

Second Laws -------- 33 

Sir Isaac Newton ___- 39 

The Ecliptic and the Equator ----- 46 

The Plane of the Ecliptic - - - - - .- - 47 

The Sun's Surface -------- 58 

Sun Spots ---------- 65 

Diagrams of Zenith -------- 85 

Photograph of a Portion of the Moon - - - 117 

Diagram of an Eclipse ------- 119 

Jupiter and Mars -------- 133 

Diagram Illustrating Time of Eclipse of 

Jupiter's Satellites ------- 141 

Relative Size of the Planets ------ 154 

Halley's Comet --------- 163 

A Spiral Nebula -------- 177 

Andromeda Nebula = - - - - - - - 180 

Professor Albert A. Michelson ----- 190 

Size of the Star Betelgeuse ------ 191 

The Great Nebula of Orion ------ 201 

Constellations of the Spring Sky ----- 206 

Constellations of the Summer Sky - 207 

Constellations of the Autumn Sky - 208 

Constellations of the Winter Sky - 209 

Cygnus the Swan -------- 213 

Nebulae in^he Pleiades - - - - - - 218 

The Sword and Belt of Orion ----- 221 

The Spectrum --------- 230 

Refraction Illustrated with a Spoon - 231 

Refraction Illustrated with a Coin - 232 

COLORED PLATES 
The Planet Saturn ------ Frontispiece 

The Sun in Total Eclipse - Opposite page 58 

The Moon ------ Opposite page 111 

The Planet Jupiter - Opposite page 138 




p 

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55 



I 

THE UNIVERSE 

"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath 
created these things, that bringeth out their host by num- 
ber : He calleth them all by names by the greatness of 
His might, for that He is strong in power ; not one f ail- 
eth." Isaiah 40: 26. 

"A little cloud-ladder runs up to the blue. 
Oh, would we could mount it, and take a peep through 
To where stars and planets their lone vigil keep 
Above us through sunshine as well as through sleep." 

WE love the forget-me-nots of earth, and 
our pulse quickens at sight of their 
delicately tinted beauty. We press a cluster 
of them to our face with pleasure akin to that 
of friendship. So it is with the "forget-me- 
nots of the angels," the stars. Personal ac- 
quaintanceship w T ith them — familiarity with 
their names, location, special charms, associ- 
ates, times of rising and setting — gives us a 
friendly feeling toward them, so that we 
watch for their appearance with real inter- 
est. Such an acquaintanceship is not difficult 
to obtain, and requires little technical infor- 
mation. A nightly observation of the sky, 
under the direction of a guide, such as "In 
Starland" purposes to be, will richly reward 
the observer. 

(11) 



12 IN STARLAND 

Ralph Waldo Emerson hinted at the too 
general lack of interest in the glories of the 
sky when he said, "If the stars should appear 
one night in a thousand years, how would men 
believe and adore and preserve for many 
generations the remembrance of the city of 
God which had been, shown!" i But because 
the Lord in His love grants us ; .nightly this 
wonderful display, shall we neglect to show 
appreciation and interest? Shall we not the 
rather, in obedience to His invitation, eagerly 
lift our "eyes on high" in search of such 
matchless star jewels as Sirius, Arcturus, 
Spica, Capella, Vega, Altair, Antares, Regu- 
lus, Castor, Pollux, Betelgeuse, and Rigel, 
with many others; and also for the constella- 
tions they represent? 

As we look up at the stars, we behold not 
separate and independent shining bodies, but 
members of starry families, or solar systems, 
of varying proportions. Most of these heav- 
enly bodies that we see are supposed to be 
great central suns, around which, in immense 
concentric orbits, revolve worlds, each with its 
own moons, or satellites, sweeping around it, 
all bound together in one inseparable whole. 
At irregular intervals of time and space, 



THE UNIVERSE 13 

mysterious comets rush across the planetary 
orbits; and shooting stars and meteors dart 
hither and thither. 

These myriads of systems, hung in space, 
are moving with inconceivable velocity, but in 
perfect order. That man might the better 
study and appreciate this immeasurable, ever- 
moving panorama, "his whole world turns 
him before it." He finds that "the sky is a 
vast immovable dial plate o.f that clock whose 
pendulum ticks ages instead of seconds, and 
whose time is eternity. The moon moves 
among the illuminated figures, traversing the 
dial quickly, like a second hand, once a month. 
The sun, like a minute hand, goes over the 
dial once a year. Various planets stand for 
hour hands, moving over the dial in various 
periods reaching up to one hundred and 
sixty- four years; while the earth, like a ship 
of exploration, sails the infinite azure, bear- 
ing observers to different points where they 
may investigate the infinite problems of this 
mighty machinery." 

If there were no more to the handiwork of 
God than our own solar system, which pre- 
empts several octillion cubic miles of space, 
we could never fathom the wonders of His 



14 IN STARLAND 

power. But our system is only one of num- 
berless systems, and one of the smallest. 
With our present telescopes, it is possible to 
photograph at least two hundred million 
stars, each perhaps representing one or more 
systems. The Lord Himself suggested the 
boundlessness of space, when He said, "If 
heaven above can be measured, ... I will 
also cast off all the seed of Israel." But 
heaven cannot be measured. 

Richter, in seeking to give an idea of the 
infinitude of the works of God, represents an 
angel as escorting a man through space to 
reveal to him the glory of the universe. He 
describes the imaginary flight thus: "So man 
and angel passed on, viewing the universe 
until the sun was out of sight — until our 
solar system appeared as a speck of light 
against the black empyrean, and there was 
only darkness. And they looked onward, and 
in the infinities of light before, a speck of 
light appeared, and suddenly they were in 
the midst of rushing worlds. But they passed 
beyond that system, and beyond system after 
system, and infinity after infinity, until the 
human heart sank and the man cried out, 
'End is there none of the universe of God? 5 



THE UNIVERSE 15 

The angel strengthened the man by words of 
counsel and courage, and they flew on again 
until worlds left behind them were out of 
sight, and specks of light in advance were 
transformed, as they approached them, into 
rushing systems; they moved over architraves 
of eternities, over pillars of immensities, over 
architecture of galaxies unspeakable in di- 
mensions and duration, and the human heart 
sank again and called out, 'End is there none 
of the universe of God?' And all the stars 
echoed the question with amazement, 'End is 
there none of the universe of God?' And 
this echo found no answer. They moved on 
again past immensities of immensities, and 
eternities of eternities, until in the dizziness 
of uncounted galaxies the human heart sank 
for the last time, and called out, 'End is 
there none of the universe of God?' And 
again all the stars repeated the question, and 
the angel answered: 'End there is none of the 
universe of God. Lo, also, there is no be- 
ginning.' " 

While this is but an imaginary incident, 
there is no doubt that could a person actu- 
ally wing his flight through the universe 
of God, he would experience much the same 



16 IN STARLAND 

sensation of awe and wonder as is here de- 
picted. Even when we can do no more than 
stand with head uplifted to the starry dome 
above us, contemplating the glories of the 
sky, "our hearts burn within us;" and we bow 
in reverence before the Power that created 
all these things, and created them for man's 
pleasure and profit. Surely man dishonors 
his Creator by taking little interest in this 
celestial display of His handiwork. True 
friendship with the stars strengthens one's 
friendship with God, and adds to the pleasure 
of life. Walt Whitman, in the following 
stanza, suggests the method of obtaining real, 
soul-satisfying companionship from the stars: 

"When I heard the learned astronomer, 
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in 

columns before me, 
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to 

add, divide, and measure them, 
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he 

lectured with much applause in the lecture room, 
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 
Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself, 
In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time, 
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars." 



II 

GROWTH OF ASTRONOMICAL 
KNOWLEDGE 

"0 Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast 
Thou made them all." Psalm 104:24. 

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firma- 
ment showeth His handiwork." Psalm 19: 1. 

MAN'S greatest triumphs of discovery 
have been in the study of the heavens; 
yet he has learned but little more than the 
astronomical alphabet, all his knowledge of 
the starry spheres being comprehended in 
this one science, while his knowledge of things 
in our own planet comprises many separate 
sciences. 

However, from another point of view, and 
by comparison with the astronomical knowl- 
edge of the ancients, the astronomers of to- 
day, with the magnificent facilities at their 
command, are able to penetrate far into the 
mysteries of the heavens. 

The ancients, without facilities or with 
pathetically meager ones, are credited with 
surprisingly clever observations. The Chi- 
nese take great pride in their early astro- 
nomical work, having the oldest record of an 

(17) 




I 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 19 

observed conjunction of the moon and four 
planets. They also claim credit for the first 
record of a solar eclipse. 

Two of their chief astronomers, Ho and 
Hsi, unfortunately were put to death by or- 
der of the government for failing to announce 
a solar eclipse that took place in their time. 
The seriousness of their offense lay in the 
fact that eclipses were regarded as evidence 
of the wrath of the gods, so the performance 
of religious ceremonies for the appeasing of 
this wrath was imperative. 

The Chaldeans, who lived in and about 
Babylon, were among the earliest of observ- 
ers. Our present system of star groups, or 
constellations, began to be formed in those 
early times. The Chaldean shepherds, watch- 
ing their flocks "under a sky famed for its 
clearness and brilliancv," discerned certain 
well defined groups of stars. By allowing 
the imagination considerable freedom, they 
saw men, women, horses, fishes, bears, birds, 
and other forms portrayed in these groups. 
Later, the Greeks gave names to such, and 
wove about them fantastic stories, which have 
been retained to the present time. Orion, 
for example, is represented under the figure 



20 



IN STARLAND 



of a hunter assaulting Taurus, the bulk He 
has a sword in his belt, a club in one hand, 
and the skin of a lion over the other arm. 

The great Egyptian pyramids, set square 
with the points of the compass, with their 



Orion 





Taurus, the Bull 



THE HAR£ 



openings facing the north and leading to 
passages parallel with the meridian, silently 
testify to astronomical knowledge on the part 
of the ancient dwellers by the Nile. With 
them, the heavenly bodies were objects of 
worship, and hence their risings and settings 
were systematically observed; but the Egyp- 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 21 

tians contributed little to the progress of 
astronomy. 

To the Greeks is given credit for the first 
genuine science of astronomy, though they 
borrowed the beginnings of their knowledge 
from the Babylonians and the Egyptians. 

Thales, the chief of the "seven wise men" 
of Greece, lived more than six hundred years 
before Christ. Not only are we indebted to 
him for the part of geometry which treats of 
lines, and for the foundation of algebra, but 
he did much to awaken and keep alive an 
interest in astronomy. While he regarded 
the earth as a flat disk, he held that the moon 
shines by the reflected light of the sun. He 
determined the exact position of the sun in 
the heavens at the astronomical beginning of 
each of the four seasons, or in technical lan- 
guage, the time of the equinoxes and the sol- 
stices. 

One of his most famous achievements was 
the prediction of the solar eclipse of 585 
B. a, which terminated the *••.. 
war between the Medes * : - ;< S 
and the Lydians. He also '• 

pointed out to navigators * Pole Star 

that as the Little Dipper the Little Dipper 



22 IN STARLAND 

was nearer the pole than the large, and the 

north star a part of it, it was a better guide 

for the mariner than the large one, which they 

were accustomed to use. 

Pythagoras, a Greek philoso- 

\ A1 pher, lived in the sixth century 

j£ before Christ. He was partly 

♦ big con temporary with Thales. To 

J 01 ppEft him is accredited the honor of 

4t \ having raised mathematics to a 

^ science, even the name "mathe- 

*' matics" being ascribed to him. 

He it was who discovered that the square of 

the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle 

equals the sum of 

the squares of the 

other two sides. He ^ 

it was who discov- - a , - .--.,- . 

, Al . , THE UTTLE OOG 

ered the numerical 

relations of the musical scale. But with all 

these achievements, he gave much attention 

to the study of astronomy. He founded a 

celebrated school at Crotona, in the southern 

part of Italy. Here he taught the rotation of 

the earth and that the planets were inhabited 

worlds. He was the first to conceive the 

earth to be a globe, self-supported in empty 




GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 23 

space ("And hangeth the earth upon noth- 
ing." Job 26:7), revolving with the other 
planets around a central body, not the sun, 
however. He retained, unfortunately, the 
idea of circular instead of elliptical orbits for 
the heavenly bodies. Had he been able to 
offer absolute proof for such of his theories 
as were really correct, astronomy would have 
been advanced many centuries. As it was, he 
was counted a dreamer ; and in time, his best 
gifts to the science were forgotten. 

Hipparchus, who lived in the second cen- 
tury before Christ, ascertained the length of 
the year within six minutes, and made the 
first star catalogue, locating definitely one 
thousand and eighty stars. The greatness of 
this achievement is manifest when we consider 
his lack of apparatus, and also reflect that 
this is about one fourth of all the stars that 
can be seen by the average person with the un- 
aided eye. This work, including his division 
of the stars into six classes of brightness, or 
magnitudes, is pronounced by the "Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica" "one of the finest monu- 
ments on antique astronomy." 

As an aid in astronomical calculations, he 
developed the science of trigonometry, not 



24 IN STARLAND 

completely, but in its beginnings. He also 
evolved an ingenious but cumbersome and 
erroneous system of "cycles and epicycles" in 
an effort to account for the motions of the 
planets and their satellites. 

This theory made the heavenly bodies re- 
volve in circles about the earth as the center. 
First came the moon, followed in order by 
Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, 
Saturn, each in its own orbit. Outside of all 
were the stars. While our earth is an im- 
portant unit in the universe of God — at 
least, it seems so to us — yet it is by no means 
the center of the universe. Nothing but the 
moon revolves about it as a center. 

In time, in the attempt to account for all 
the observed motions and deflections of the 
planets, the system suggested by Hipparchus 
grew more and more complicated, until at 
last a combination of several cycles and epi- 
cycles was necessary to make the planet Mars 
keep pace with the theory. 

Strange as it may appear, this erroneous 
system was sufficiently ingenious to allow 
astronomers to predict the places of the 
planets so accurately that errors were not de- 
tected by the crude instruments then in use. 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 25 

Hence its long life, satisfying the sages for 
more than a thousand years. 

This system was based upon the idea that 
the earth was the center of the universe, and 
that the heavenly bodies revolved around it in 
circles at a uniform rate. While not one of 
these assumptions is true, this theory decided 
the future of Greek astronomy. 

Ptolemy, who lived in the first half of the 
second century after Christ, espoused this 
theory of Hipparchus's, and expounded it in 
his famous "Almagest," which was used as a 
world textbook on astronomy for fourteen 
centuries. The system came to be known as 
the Ptolemaic theory. Ptolemy believed the 
earth to be spherical, but rejected its ro- 
tation. 

During the early part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, the astronomer Copernicus aroused the 
astronomical world from its complacent con- 
dition by reviving the theory of Pythagoras, 
which had been dead for a millennium. Co- 
pernicus saw "how beautifully simple is the 
idea of considering the sun the grand center 
about which the earth and other planets re- 
volve. He noticed how constantly, when we 
are riding swiftly, we forget our own motion, 



26 IN STARLAND 

and think that the trees and the fences are 
gliding by us in the contrary direction. He 
applied this thought to the movements of the 
heavenly bodies, and maintained that, instead 
of all the starry host revolving about the 
earth once in twenty-four hours, the earth 
simply turns on its own axis, and this pro- 
duces the apparent daily revolution of the sun 
and the stars; while the yearly motion of the 
earth about the sun, transferred in the same 
manner, would account for the solar move- 
ments." 

Truth usually unfolds on the installment 
plan, one mind seemingly being unable to 
compass it all. So here, while Copernicus 
conceived many truths, he failed to grasp the 
correct idea regarding the paths, or orbits, 
of the planets. He saw that the idea of cir- 
cular orbits would not explain all the observed 
phenomena, so he retained the system of 
"cycles and epicycles." 

In six volumes, Copernicus set forth his 
theories of the solar system, these coming 
from the press as their author lay on his 
deathbed. Though the Roman Catholic 
Church carried this work on its prohibitory 
list from 1616 to 1757 a. d., as heretical and 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 27 

unworthy of reading, Copernicus had herein 
laid the foundation of modern astronomy, 
upon which later astronomers have reared a 
substantial superstructure. 

After Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, a Danish 
astronomer, who lived from 1546 to 1601 
a. d., was the next to make a substantial gift 
to the science of astronomy. He was of 
noble birth, and was early adopted by a rich 
uncle, Jorgen Brahe, who sent him to Copen- 
hagen to study philosophy and rhetoric. 
While there, he was impressed by the fact 
that a solar eclipse occurred at the exact time 
predicted. Thereafter astronomy seemed to 
him something divine. Procuring the works 
of Ptolemy and of other writers on the 
heavens, he became deeply interested in the 
science. But at this time, astronomy, then 
closely associated with astrology, was in gen- 
eral disrepute, because it stood so largely for 
conjectures and superstitions. Tycho's uncle, 
sharing the general feeling, forbade the 
youth's having anything to do with the study 
of the stars while at the Leipzig University, 
where he had been sent to perfect himself in 
law. But Tycho's interest in the planets and 
the stars was as great as his lack of interest 



28 IN STARLAND 

in law; so he managed secretly to prosecute 
his study of the heavens. After his uncle's 
death, which occurred within a few years, he 
was free to direct his time and studies more 
to his liking. 

It may be of interest to note that Brahe 
took part in a duel, then considered an hon- 
orable way of settling disputes, and unfortu- 
nately lost his nose in the fray, thereafter 
wearing a substitute made of copper. 

On returning to Denmark, he entered upon 
his life work. His reverence for God's handi- 
work was so great that he always clad him- 
self in his velvet robes of state before entering 
his observatory, where he "watched the heav- 
ens with the intelligence of a philosopher and 
the splendor of a king," making astronomical 
observations that attracted much attention. 

He had the advantage of his predecessors 
in being a man of wealth, and a friend of the 
Danish king, who placed at his disposal large 
appropriations from the government. With 
these, he erected on the island of Hven a 
magnificent observatory, equipped with rare 
and costly instruments. For twenty years, 
he devoted himself assiduously to his ob- 
servatory work. 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 29 

Though this was before the day of the 
telescope, Brahe, with the aid of the appara- 
tus at his command, was able "to place as- 
tronomy on an entirely new basis — that of 
exact observation." This was virtually the 
beginning of the science of astronomy. Hith- 
erto, scientific men oscillated like the pendu- 
lum of a clock, from one astronomical theory 
to another, all of which contained some truth 
but more error. Brahe's legacy to the science 
of astronomy was a vast fund of astronomi- 
cal data, the result of years of patient and 
zealous work. 

Like many other men of high achievement, 
he became a victim of jealousy and injustice. 
His good friend King Frederick having died, 
the son who succeeded to the throne allowed 
himself to be influenced by jealous nobles, 
who brought charges against the astrono- 
mer. These led to the withdrawal of Tycho's 
pension and forbade his continuance of his 
astronomical observations. As this meant a 
virtual exile from the land of his birth, he 
removed to Bohemia, taking his observatory 
instruments with him. His adopted country 
honored him with an important position; but 
the hurt of the injustice he had suffered was 



30 IN STARLAND 

so deep that he early sickened and died. Dur- 
ing his last illness, he was heard to say 
warmly, "O that I may be found not to have 
lived in vain!" 

Tycho was not able to apply to the greatest 
advantage the valuable data he had secured; 
therefore he requested that his assistant, 
Johann Kepler, use his instruments and 
observational data, and if possible, from them 
establish a correct theory of the universe. 
Kepler took this mass of facts and figures, 
and developed from them laws that solved 
the question of the motions of the planets, 
and of their times of revolution. But jeal- 
ousy on the part of Tycho's son-in-law robbed 
Kepler of the use of the astronomer's valu- 
able instruments. 

The story of Kepler's work is as fascinat- 
ing as his work is important. Dr. J. D. 
Steele gives an especially interesting account 
of how Kepler developed his first great law: 

"At that time, all believed the orbits of the 
heavenly bodies to be circular. They reasoned 
thus: The circle is perfect; it is the most 
beautiful figure in nature; it has neither be- 
ginning nor ending; therefore it is the only 
form worthy of God, and He must have used 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 31 

i 

it for the orbits of the worlds He has made. 
Imbued with this romantic view, Kepler be- 
gan with a rigorous comparison of the places 
of the planet Mars as observed by Brahe, 
with the places as stated by the best tables 
that could be computed on the circular 
theory. For a time, they agreed; but in 
certain portions of the orbit, the observa- 
tions of Brahe would not fit the computed 
place by eight minutes of a degree. Believ- 
ing that so good an astronomer could not be 
mistaken as to the facts, Kepler exclaimed, 
'Out of these eight minutes, we will construct 
a new theory that will explain the movements 
of all planets.' 

"He resumed his work, and for eight years 
continued to imagine every conceivable hy- 
pothesis, and then patiently to test it — 'hunt 
it down,' as he called it. Each in turn proved 
false, until nineteen had been tried. He then 
determined to abandon the circle and adopt 
another form. The ellipse suggested itself 
to his mind. 

"With this figure, he constructed an orbit 
having the sun at the center, and again fol- 
lowed the planet Mars in its course. But very 
soon there was as great a discrepancy between 



32 IN STARLAND 

the observed and computed places as before. 
Undismayed by this failure, Kepler assumed 
another hypothesis, and determined to place 
the sun at one of the foci of the ellipse. 
Once more he 'hunted down' the theory. For 
a whole year, he traced the planet along the 
imaginary orbit, and it did not diverge. The 
truth was discovered at last, and Kepler in 
1609 announced his first great law: 

' 'Planets revolve in ellipses, with the sun 
at one focus.' " 

Kepler, in continuing to study the motion 
of the planets, found that a planet's speed in 
its path around the sun is constantly varying. 
Later he was able to deduce his second law: 

"A line connecting the center of a planet 
with the center of the sun passes over equal 
areas in equal times." 

The accompanying diagram readily inter- 
prets this law to the eye. Since the areas of 
the dark triangles are equal, and the planet 
passes over the varying bases of the triangles 
in the same time, it must travel much faster 
in passing from Pi to P2, the larger dis- 
tance, than in passing from Ps to P4. 

This able astronomer could not, however, 
tell what causes a planet continually to 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 



33 



change its speed in this way; but he accom- 
plished much in determining that it does so, 
and that it moves according to definite law. 
Kepler now set for himself another great 
task. He determined to discover whether 
there is any fixed relation between the times 




Diagram illustrating Kepler's first and second laws. 
The eccentricity of the earth's orbit is here greatly exag- 
gerated, to show more clearly the varying speed of the 
planets in their elliptical journey around the sun. 

S represents the center of the sun; P 1? P 2 , P 3 , and P 4 
represent the center of a planet in four positions. A 
planet would travel from P x to P 2 in the same time that 
would be required for it to travel from P 3 to P 4 . The 
area embraced by the lines P v P 2 , S, is exactly the same 
as the area P 3 , P 4 , S. 



34 IN STARLAND 

required for planets to revolve about the sun 
and their distances from the sun. Again us- 
ing the figures of Tycho Brahe, he began to 
compare them, arranging them in every con- 
ceivable relation. Finally, nine years after 
the discovery of his first law, he announced 
his third: 

"The squares of the times of revolution of 
the planets about the sun are proportional to 
the cubes of their mean distances." 

This means that to obtain the average dis- 
tance of a planet from the sun, we should 
regard the earth's period of revolution as one 
year, and our distance from the sun as unity, 
then square the planet's time of revolution, 
and extract the cube root of the result, which 
gives us the planet's mean distance from the 
sun as compared with our own. 

For example, Uranus, which is next beyond 
Saturn, makes a revolution in eighty-four 
years; the square of eighty-four is seven 
thousand and fifty-six; the cube root of which 
is nineteen and eighteen hundredths. The 
mean distance of Uranus from the sun is 
therefore nineteen and eighteen hundredths 
times our own mean distance, or nineteen and 
eighteen hundredths times ninety-three mil- 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 35 

lion miles, or one billion, seven hundred and 
eighty-two million miles. 

The discovery of these laws was a wonder- 
ful achievement; and when Kepler concluded 
liis work, he exclaimed with rapture: "Noth- 
ing holds me. The die is cast. The book is. 
written, to be read now or by posterity, I 
care not which. It may well wait a century 
for a reader, since God has waited six thou- 
sand years for an observer." 

At this stage of the progress of astronomi- 
cal science, a telescope was needed perhaps 
more than anything else; and Galileo, Italy's 
most famous philosopher and physicist, who 
lived from 1564 to 1642 a. d., provided the 
needed instrument — just a piece of lead pipe 
with a specially devised lens set at each end, 
but it was destined to accomplish marvels for 
the science of astronomy. When Kepler per- 
ceived the possibilities of the new instrument, 
lie exclaimed: "O telescope, instrument of 
much knowledge, more precious than any 
scepter ! Is not he who holds thee in his hand 
made king and lord of the works of God?" 

Galileo himself had the good fortune, on 
January 7, 1610, to discover with his new in- 
strument four of the moons of Jupiter; and 



36 IN STAEXAND 

not until nearly three hundred years later, in 
1892, was a fifth moon observed. Galileo 
made many other important discoveries with 
his telescope, though it magnified only thirty- 
three diameters, while the Mt. Wilson tele- 
scope is capable of magnifying ten thousand 
diameters. 

Galileo was one of the world's most gifted 
men intellectually. His talents compassed 
a large range; for he could have brought 
fame to himself as musician, painter, orator, 
mathematician, inventor, physician, or phi- 
losopher. Fortunately, we think, his interest 
in astronomy and physics superseded other 
interests, and his name is inseparably con- 
nected with the development of these sciences. 
He early adopted the Copernican theory 
regarding the sun, instead of the earth, as the 
center of our solar system; but for a long 
time, from fear of ridicule, he was deterred 
from publicly expressing this belief. He also 
believed in the rotation of the earth, and was 
the first to describe the mountainous charac- 
ter of the moon's surface, and one of the 
first to suggest that the moon is a dark body 
shining by the reflected light of the sun. 
Hitherto, moonlight was generally regarded 






GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 37 

as a kind of "phosphorescence" inherent in 
that body. Galileo was the first, too, to re- 
veal the starry character of the Milky Way, 
and the librations of the moon. Many other 
discoveries might have been his, had he not 
been harassed, threatened, and finally im- 
prisoned by the Catholic clergy of his time, 
who held that his ideas of the solar system 
and of the rotation of the earth were contrary 
to Scripture and hence heretical. 

Even after Galileo's eyes, which had opened 
to the world such marvelous things, were for- 
ever closed in hopeless blindness, he continued 
his writing and study, making substantial 
gifts to science. It is interesting to note that 
the two great blind geniuses, Milton and 
Galileo, had the privilege of personal ac- 
quaintanceship after this tragic affliction came 
to the astronomer. 

The year that Galileo died, Isaac Newton 
was born. He was destined to do for as- 
tronomy a work akin to that of Kepler. His 
philosophical mind demanded to know the 
why of things. When he saw an apple fall 
to the ground, he asked himself, Why did it 
fall to the ground? When he thought of the 
moon and the planets, he asked: Why do 



38 IN STARLAND 

they move in ellipses? What holds them in 
their course about the sun? When he thought 
of a planet's quickening its speed in portions 
of its orbit, he asked, What causes it to do 
this? Then again he asked, If one were up 
in space and should throw a stone, where 
would it go — in w T hat direction and with 
what speed would it travel? 

A question was to Isaac Newton a chal- 
lenge to find the solution; so for sixteen long 
years, he toiled over interminable columns of 
figures, in an effort to find the answer to these 
questions. At last, he announced his first law 
of motion: 

' 'Every body continues in a state of rest 
or of uniform motion in a straight line, un- 
less compelled to change that state by an ex- 
ternal force." 

From this law, he knew that if a planet 
were put in motion, and no force acted upon 
it to change its course, it would move on for- 
ever in a straight line; but Kepler had shown 
that the planets move in ellipses. What was 
the force that caused the planets to move in 
ellipses, was the problem Newton next set 
about to solve. He studied the moon and 
other heavenly bodies to find what directed 




(39) 



40 IN STARLAND 

or regulated their motion. He finally reached 
the conclusion that the sun, by its attractive 
power, compelled the planets to revolve about 
him, "holding them with an irresistible power 
in their appointed paths." He found that 
the motions of the moon could be explained 
by assuming that the earth exerted an at- 
tractive force upon it, compelling it to circle 
around her. In time, he was able to announce 
the general law of gravitation: "Every par- 
ticle of matter in the universe attracts every 
other particle of matter with a force directly 
proportional to its mass and inversely propor- 
tional to the square of the distance." 

All bodies, then, according to Newton, are 
kept from flying away into space by the at- 
traction of a greater body; and from falling 
into that body, by the speed with which they 
are revolving around it. Just so, when you 
whirl a ball tied to a string round your finger, 
the string keeps the ball from flying into 
space, and the rapid movement of the ball 
keeps it from falling toward your hand. 

This law means that a body which has twice 
as much matter- in it as another, will exert 
twice the attraction or pulling force of that 
other body, other things being equal; and also 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 41 

that it will be pulled by a third body with 
twice the force of the other body, as it has 
twice as much matter to be pulled. Thus it 
is seen that gravity is proportional to th: 
quantity of matter. 

The second part of the law may be il- 
lustrated by the weight of an object on the 
earth and its weight when removed from the 
earth. If an aviator weighing two hundred 
pounds at the surface of the earth, four thou- 
sand miles from the center, could fly to twice 
that distance, or eight thousand miles from 
the center, he would weigh only one fourth 
as much, or fifty pounds. At sixteen thou- 
sand miles, he would weigh one sixteenth as 
much as he did at the surface, for he would 
be four times as far away. At the distance 
of the moon, two hundred and forty thou- 
sand miles, he would weigh one thirty-six 
hundredth of two hundred pounds, or one 
eighteenth of a pound, so far as the earth 
is concerned. 

The time required for gravity to act be- 
tween two bodies, however distant, is thought 
to be infinitesimal, or altogether negligible. 
At least, we are told that the speed of light 
is so incomprehensibly great that all other 



42 IN STARLAND 

velocities, when compared with it, seem as 
rest; so the quickness with which gravity acts 
when compared with the velocity of light 
makes light appear to be motionless. 

The world's appreciation of Newton's great 
achievement is naively expressed by Pope: 

"Nature and nature's law lay hid in night: 
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light." 

While Sir Isaac Newton gave to this power 
which holds the heavenly bodies in their paths 
the name of gravitation, yet he did not really 
know what gravitation is. Professor Charles 
Young, of Princeton, in speaking of gravi- 
tation, said: "It is inscrutable. If I were to 
say what I really believe, it would be that 
the motion of the spheres of the material 
universe stand in some such relation to Him 
in whom all things exist, the ever-present and 
omnipotent God, as the motions of my body 
do to my will. I do not know how and never 
expect to know." 

"In Him all things consist; 

Are held together by His power : 
The weight of worlds; a wealth of mist; 
The petals of a flower." 

While scientists may not understand the 
nature of the mysterious force that holds 



GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE 43 

every sun and world in its appointed path, 
all must acknowledge that there is a very 
precise, definite, and intelligent adjustment 
between the amount of matter in a given body 
and its position and motions in the universe. 
If the sun weighed more or less than it 
does, the attraction upon the earth would be 
increased or lessened in proportion to the 
sun's change in weight, and the entire balance 
of the solar system would be affected accord- 
ingly. Therefore it is not unwise nor un- 
scientific to believe that the nice adjustment 
which characterizes the entire heavens is due 
to the fact that the Creator of all things "hath 
measured the waters in the hollow of His 
hand, and meted out heaven with the span, 
and comprehended the dust of the earth in 
a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance." Isaiah 
40:12. Surely "by Him all things consist," 
or hold together! 



Ill 

CIRCLES AND MEASUREMENTS 
OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERE 

"He . . . sitteth upon the circle of the earth." 
Isaiah 40: 22. 

BEFORE attempting an intelligent ac- 
quaintance with the heavens, it is desir- 
able to understand certain astronomical terms 
and systems of measurements. This is not 
a difficult task if one insists on the imagina- 
tion's acting its part acceptably. 

Think first of the great blue dome of the 
heavens, the sky, as part of a great hollow 
sphere with the observer at the center, and 
all the stars and planets attached to its inner 
surface. This imaginary sphere is called the 
celestial sphere. The stars are at very un- 
equal distances from us; but they all appear 
projected upon the inner surface of this great 
sphere. No observer can see more than one 
half of this sphere at a time; and if we 
imagine a plane cutting through the center 
and dividing the sphere in halves, the circle 
made by the cutting plane is the astronomi- 
cal horizon. The actual or visible horizon is 
more or less irregular, and is the plane that 

(44) 



THE CELESTIAL SPHERE 45 

touches the surface of the earth where the 
observer stands, and extends out to the ce- 
lestial sphere, separating the visible portion 
of the celestial sphere from the invisible. The 
point directly over the observer's head is the 
zenith, and the point directly below him is 
the nadir. The line connecting these passes 
through the center of the earth. 

Think of the earth as within the celestial 
sphere, the centers of the two spheres coin- 
ciding, and the poles of the celestial sphere 
being the point in the heavens opposite the 
poles of the earth; then the celestial equator 
is the intersection of the plane of the equator 
of the earth (extended out on all sides) with 
the celestial sphere. 

As the earth revolves in its orbit, a person 
on the earth looking out at the celestial 
sphere, w T hich is at an infinite distance from 
him, will see the sun at a point on this sphere 
opposite to his own position. Day after day, 
as the earth moves on in its orbit around the 
sun, this orb will appear at a different place 
in the celestial sphere, finally seeming to have 
made a circuit of the heavens. The sun, 
therefore, because of the revolution of the 
earth about it, seems to traverse the same 



46 IN STARLAND 

path that the earth would, to an observer on 
the sun. This apparent path of the sun in the 
heavens is the ecliptic, and is found by ex- 
tending the plane of the earth's orbit out to 
meet the celestial sphere. 

If the earth revolved with its axis perpen- 
dicular to the plane of its orbit, and its center 
p in that plane, the celes- 

/"" "\ tial equator, which is 

/ \ ^ the plane of the earth's 

/ ,.,- -- - ^^ :::::: § ->A equator extended, 

B [// %r y *^ A c would coincide with 
^sl. "I-^"^ " £a0 ^ / *^ e ecliptic. But since 

the axis of the earth 
-" j s i nc li n ed twenty-three 

and a half degrees to the plane of its orbit, 
the equator of the earth is lifted up from the 
plane twenty- three and one half degrees; so 
the two great celestial circles intersect at this 
angle, one half of the equator being above 
the ecliptic, and one half below. If you will 
secure two barrel hoops and place them so 
that they intersect at an angle of twenty-three 
and one half degrees, they will represent the 
two great celestial circles, and perhaps make 
clearer what follows. 



THE CELESTIAL SPHEKE 47 

As the sun moves along in the ecliptic, evi- 
dently it must cross the intersecting points, 
which are called the equinoctial points, or 
equinoxes. The points of the ecliptic most 
distant from the equinoctial points are the 
solstices, or solstitial points. The solstices 
are ninety degrees from the equinoxes. 




tOUAlO«S*»DHI6HTS 



The term "equinox" is taken from two 
words, one meaning equal and the other night. 
When the sun is at either of the equinoxes, 
the whole world has equal days and nights. 
The word "solstice" is taken from two words 
that mean sun and standing still, since, when 
the sun is at the solstices, or the tropics of 
Cancer and Capricorn, it seems to stand still 
for a brief time before starting on the return 
trip to the equator. At this time, the days 



48 IN STARLAND 

and the nights are most unequal at all places, 
except those on the equator. 

The celestial equator is taken as the basis 
of the chief system of circles for locating 
heavenly bodies. It is a great circle, be- 
cause the imaginary cutting plane that pro- 
duces it passes through the center of the 
sphere. If the cutting plane passed outside 
the center, the result would be a small circle. 
The true or astronomical horizon is a great 
circle. 

THE EQUINOCTIAL SYSTEM OF CIRCLES 

Let the imagination again picture the 
earth inclined to its orbit twenty-three and 
one half degrees. Then extend the equator 
of the earth out to meet the celestial sphere. 
The great circle so formed is the celestial 
equator, the main circle of the equinoctial 
system. In imagination, place a yellow crayon 
on the north celestial pole, which is just above 
the north pole of the earth, and draw on the 
celestial sphere a line extending to the south 
pole, and on around to the north pole again. 
Draw a large number of these circles. These 
lines are the circumferences of the great 
circles of the celestial sphere, and are called 



THE CELESTIAL SPHERE 49 

hour circles. Next measure off on one of 
these lines a degree, and draw on the celes- 
tial sphere a circle parallel to the celestial 
equator. One degree above this small circle, 
draw another parallel to the equator. Draw 
many of these. Divide the portion of the 
celestial sphere south of the equator into a 
large number of similar small circles. These 
are the parallels of declination. Now we have 
a system of circles by which any star may be 
located. 

To locate a place on the earth, we must 
know how far it is north or south of the 
equator, and how far east or west it is from 
a certain meridian. That is, we must know 
both its latitude and its longitude. To locate 
a heavenly body, we must also know the re- 
lation of that body to two great celestial 
circles that are at right angles to each other, 
the celestial equator and an hour circle. The 
hour circle chosen for this work is the one 
passing through the first point of Aries, or 
the vernal equinox, one of the points where 
the ecliptic cuts the equator, the point through 
which the sun passes in the spring. This 
"hour circle is the Greenwich of the sky," 



50 IN STARLAND 

and is of as much service to astronomers as 
the Greenwich meridian is to our geographers. 

A star's distance in degrees north or south 
of the celestial equator, measured on the hour 
circle passing through the star, is its declina- 
tion, which corresponds to latitude on the 
earth; and its distance measured eastward 
from the vernal equinox on the celestial equa- 
tor is the star's right ascension, and corre- 
sponds to longitude on the earth. It may be 
expressed in degrees or in hours. Since the 
right ascension is measured eastward all 
around the circle, it may have any value from 
zero degrees to three hundred and sixty de- 
grees. To locate the vernal equinox, draw 
a line from Polaris through the most western 
part of Cassiopeia to the celestial equator; 
the point of intersection gives the "first point 
of Aries," or the vernal equinox. A line 
drawn from Polaris through Delta, the star 
in the Large Dipper where the handle joins 
the bowl, and prolonged until it meets the 
equator, marks the autumnal equinox. 

The equinoctial system of circles enables 
the astronomer to map the heavens as the 
geographer maps the earth. By consulting 



THE CELESTIAL SPHERE 51 

these charts, one can find in what part of the 
sky to look for a given star. 

THE ECLIPTIC SYSTEM 

We have but one terrestrial system of 
circles for locating places; but for celestial 
purposes, astronomers use three systems. 
One, in which the ecliptic is used where the 
celestial equator was used in the previous 
system, has been passed down from the an- 
cients. This system consists of the ecliptic, 
the great circles perpendicular to it, and the 
small circles parallel to it ; and by this system, 
a star's latitude and longitude are given, its 
latitude being its distance north or south 
of the ecliptic, and its longitude being its 
distance from the vernal equinox measured 
eastward on the ecliptic. This system of 
measurements should not be confused with 
terrestrial latitude and longitude. 

THE HORIZON SYSTEM 

The third system is based upon the hori- 
zon, with the zenith and the nadir as the 
poles. The small circles parallel to the hori- 
zon are called parallels of altitude, or al- 
mucantars; while the great circles passing 
through the zenith and the nadir, and cutting 



52 IN STARLAND 

the horizon at right angles, are vertical 
circles. Distance above the horizon, measured 
on the vertical circle passing through a heav- 
enly body, is its altitude; and its distance 
from the zenith is its zenith distance. The 
celestial meridian is the vertical circle passing 
through the north pole, and the prime vertical 
is the one at right angles to the celestial me- 
ridian, or the vertical circle passing through 
the east and west points. Azimuth is the 
distance on the horizon from the south point 
around toward the west, to its vertical circle. 
Some writers express it in the same way as 
the "bearing" in surveying, that is, so many 
degrees east or west of north and south, 
measured on the horizon. 

The navigator is especially dependent upon 
the horizon system of circles. For example, 
on every clear day during a transatlantic 
journey, the captain may, b5^ use of the sex- 
tant, ascertain when the sun crosses the me- 
ridian. This gives him the noon hour for the 
place where the vessel is when the observa- 
tion is made. Then by noting the altitude of 
the sun — that is, its distance above the hori- 
zon when it is on the meridian — he can find 
from printed astronomical tables the terres- 



THE CELESTIAL SPHERE 53 

trial latitude of the place where the sun was 
to have that exact altitude at noon on that 
particular day. If he wishes- to determine 
the ship's longitude also, he may note the 
difference between the local time as he found 
it by the sun, and the time of the ship's chro- 
nometer, which is set to correct Greenwich 
time. If there is a difference of just three 
hours, he knows that he is forty-five degrees 
from Greenwich, because there is a difference 
in time of one hour for every fifteen degrees 
in longitude between two places. This is 
evident from the fact that the sun passes 
over the whole circle of the earth, or three 
hundred and sixty degrees, in twenty-four 
hours, so would require one hour to pass over 
fifteen degrees. If the local time is faster 
than the chronometer time, he knows he is 
in east longitude; and if it is slower, that he 
is in west longitude. 

At night, the navigator looks to the stars 
for aid in directing his vessel. He can tell, 
from his astronomical tables, when certain 
stars should appear on the meridian of a 
given place whose latitude and longitude are 
known. He notes when they do appear on 



54 IN STAELAND 

the meridian where the vessel is, and thus he 
ascertains his location. 

This chapter may seem bewilderingly tech- 
nical; but interest in the rest of the book is 
not dependent upon a full appreciation of 
what is here given. Yet, if you later meet 
with terms not altogether clear, it may be 
that reference to this chapter will make them 
more lucid. If so, it will have been worth 
while. 



IV 
"THE DAY-STAR" 

"In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun." 
Psalm 19 : 4. 

THE sun, or day-star, is one of the 
myriads of stars in the celestial sphere. 
It is the center of our solar system, which is 
composed of the sun; the major planets, — 
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Sat- 
urn, Uranus, and Neptune; the minor 
planets, about one thousand of which have 
thus far been discovered; the satellites, or 
moons, of the major planets, twenty-six in 
number ; meteors, shooting stars, a number 
of comets, and the zodiacal light. All the 
planets, with their satellites, sweep around 
the sun in obedience to its attractive power. 
The sun is a little less than ninety-three 
million miles from us — a short distance as- 
tronomically, but not short from our view- 
point, for an aviator flying night and day at 
the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an 
hour would not reach the sun for seventy 
years. A clock would have to tick without 
interruption for nearly three years before it 
would have ticked off as many seconds as 

(55) 



56 IN STARLAND 

there are miles between us and the sun. How- 
ever, this distance of the sun from the earth 
is the "yardstick" used in measuring distances 
connected with our system. 

THE SIZE OF THE SUN 

The sun is the biggest thing in our system. 
It measures nearly nine hundred thousand 
miles from pole to pole, while our earth's 
polar diameter is less than eight thousand 
miles. To make a globe the size of the sun, 
one million three hundred thousand worlds 
the size of the earth would be required. If 
the world were to swell to the size of the sun, 
and men were to -increase in the same pro- 
portion, a man would be six hundred and 
twenty-five feet tall, towering seventy feet 
above the Washington Monument. 

If a grain of small-size shot one tenth of 
an inch across is taken to represent the earth, 
then nothing less than a football nearly a foot 
in diameter can be used for the sun. The 
weight of the sun, estimated at 2,000,000,000,- 
000,000,000,000,000,000 tons, also gives a hint 
of its size. 

"If we had a contract to build the sun," 
says one, "and could deliver the material in 



' 'the day-star'' 57 

lots the size of the earth, every hour, night 
and day, one hundred and fifty years would 
be required to complete the task." 

The sun, on account of its great mass, will 
attract a body three hundred and thirty-two 
thousand times as strongly as will the earth. 
Therefore a body falling freely under the 
sun's influence will fall four hundred and 
forty-four feet a second, instead of sixteen 
feet, as is true of the earth. One who weighs 
one hundred and fifty pounds on the earth 
would weigh twenty-seven and six tenths 
times as much, or more than four thousand 
pounds, on the sun. A terrestrial athlete, 
therefore, would be seriously handicapped in 
executing a "high jump" on the sun. 

The sun's equatorial diameter, eight hun- 
dred and sixty-six thousand miles, is but the 
measure of the core of the sun. Outside of 
the part visible to the eye, there are gaseous 
envelopes that swell the size many thousands 
of miles. 

STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE SUN 

The sun, so far as present astronomical 
knowledge extends, consists of a central mass, 
or nucleus. This is surrounded by a layer of 
luminous clouds, which is the part of the sun 



58 



IN STARLAND 



visible to us day by day. It is called the 
photosphere, or light sphere, from photos, 
meaning light. 

This luminous or light sphere is surrounded 
by a scarlet ocean of gas thousands of miles 
deep, an ocean much deeper than the Atlantic 




is broad. This is the chromosphere, or color 
sphere, from chroma, the Greek for color. 
Under ordinary circumstances, the chromo- 
sphere is invisible, being "drowned in the 
light of the photosphere." 

This great scarlet mass of turbulent flames 
was first seen during a total eclipse of the 
sun in 1605, when the red prominences of 



"the day-star" 59 

the chromosphere were observed jutting out 
far beyond the edge of the dark disk of the 
sun. For many years thereafter, the chromo- 
sphere was thought to be visible only at times 
of an eclipse; but thanks to the spectroscope, 
it may now be observed on any clear day. 
The average height of these chromospheric 
projections is found to be twenty-five thou- 
sand miles, though one measured three hun- 
dred and fifty thousand miles in height, and 
another four hundred and seventy-five thou- 
sand miles. These fiery fountains of gas 
attain a velocity of hundreds of miles a sec- 
ond, our "fiercest hurricanes being soothing 
zephyrs in comparison." 

Outside of the chromosphere lies the corona, 
so called because "it crowns the king of day." 
It is an irregular pearly light of wonderful 
beauty, composed mainly of filaments and 
streams, which often radiate out from the 
sun more than a million miles. Its "pearly 
luster contrasts beautifully with the scarlet 
prominences, which stud it like rubies." Ob- 
servers on Pikes Peak in 1878 are said to have 
seen streamers nine million miles long. 

Though most beautiful and impressive, the 
corona is not substantial, being so thin, or 



60 IN STARLAND 

rare, that comets pass through it without suf- 
fering appreciable retardation of their move- 
ments. Astronomers therefore assert that it 
must be less dense than the best vacuums 
physicists can produce. Some think it is 
auroral in character. 

By means of the spectroscope, astronomers 
have been able to determine the composition 
of the sun, having found more than forty of 
the well-known elements in it. Among these 
are aluminum, cadmium, calcium, carbon, 
chromium, cobalt, copper, hydrogen, iron, 
magnesium, manganese, nickel, silicon, silver, 
sodium, and zinc. 

LIGHT AND HEAT OF THE SUN 

The light of the sun is very real and im- 
portant. A comprehensive idea of its bril- 
liancy cannot be given by comparing it with 
artificial lights. The brightest electric arc 
light, when placed between the eye and the 
sun, will seem black by comparison. The 
light of five thousand five hundred and sixty- 
three wax candles held one foot from the eye 
will give a light comparable to the brilliance 
of the sun. Think of a bright full-moon 
night. Now place six hundred thousand such 



"the day-star" 61 

moons in the sky, and you have the light of a 
June day. It is estimated that the light of 
seven hundred million stars as bright as 
Sirius, our very brightest star, would be re- 
quired to equal the light of the sun; or the 
light of two hundred billion stars like the 
North Star. We must remember, too, that 
since the sun diffuses its radiance on all sides 
equally, we get a very small proportion of its 
light, not more than one two-billionth part 
of what it sends out into space. 

The heat of the sun in midsummer, at our 
great distance from this fiery orb, is almost 
unbearable in certain latitudes; but if we 
were to come as near to it as the moon is to 
us, we would hardly have time to feel un- 
comfortable, for our old earth and all things 
upon it would be vaporized in less time than 
would be required to tell of the catastrophe. 
As in the case of the light of the sun, we 
receive only one two-billionth part of its 
heat ; yet our annual ration would be sufficient 
to melt a layer of ice covering the entire earth 
to the depth of one hundred and twenty-four 
feet. It has "been calculated that if the sun 
were expending money instead of energy, at 
the rate of ninety billion dollars a year, the 



62 IN STARLAND 

earth's portion would be only forty-five dol- 
lars." 

If the heat of the sun were produced by 
the burning of coal, it is estimated that a 
layer sixteen feet thick, extending over its 
whole surface, would be required to produce 
the heat given off in a single hour. Sir John 
Herschel estimated that if a solid cylinder of 
ice forty-five miles in diameter and two hun- 
dred thousand miles long were plunged into 
the sun, it would be melted in a second of 
time. Professor Young claimed that if the 
sun were frozen over completely to a depth 
of fifty feet, the heat emitted would melt the 
shell in one minute ; and that if a bridge could 
be formed from the sun to the earth by a 
column of ice two and a fourth miles square 
and ninety-three million miles long, and if in 
some way the heat of the sun could be con- 
centrated upon it, it would melt in a second 
of time, and be vaporized in seven more sec- 
onds. We are told that all known substances 
melt and vaporize under the focus of a power- 
ful burning lens; yet this heat is not nearly 
so intense as that at the surface of the sun 
itself. In terms of thermometer readings, 
the sun's temperature is twelve thousand de- 



"the day-star" 63 

grees Fahrenheit; while one of the highest 
terrestrial readings is that of the electric arc, 
which shows a temperature of six thousand 
degrees. 

Though the heat of our sun is incompre- 
hensible, it is altogether inconsiderable when 
compared with the heat of the central body 
of some of the other solar systems. Take for 
example Arcturus, the giant sun of the con- 
stellation Bootes. Mr. Garrett P. Serviss 
bids us "imagine the earth and other planets 
constituting our solar system removed to 
Arcturus and set revolving round it in orbits 
of the same forms and sizes of those in which 
they circle aboutr the sun. Poor Mercury, 
for that little planet it would indeed be a 
jump from the frying pan into the fire; be- 
cause as it rushed to perihelion, the point of 
its orbit nearest the sun, Mercury would 
plunge more than two million five hundred 
thousand miles beneath the surface of the 
giant star. Venus and Earth would melt like 
snowflakes at the mouth of the furnace. 
Even far-away Neptune would swelter in 
torrid heat." 

How this great heat is maintained is a 
puzzling question to those set to solve the 



64 IN STARLAND 

problems of the skies. The generally ac- 
cepted though unproved view is that the sun 
is shrinking slowly but continuously, and that 
the friction thus produced provides the nec- 
essary heat. If this be true, human reason- 
ing might indicate that the sun would burn 
out after a few million years, and the earth 
be left to wander on in darkness ; but no one 
who understands that the Creator of the uni- 
verse maintains as well as creates, will have 
any undue concern over the future of the 
sun or the world. "God's in His heaven: 
all's right with the world!" 

THE SUN SPOTS 

The immense dark spots so often seen on 
the sun were long supposed to be deep tem- 
porary holes caused bjr violent electrical 
storms in the photosphere; but now the 
opinion exists that they are "due to as- 
cending currents, material flowing outward 
from the sun's interior becoming cooler at the 
higher level, and therefore appearing dark 
against the brighter photosphere," they being 
"something like waterspouts at sea, the pe- 
numbra of the spot corresponding to the 
spreading top, and the darker umbra, to the 
stem." A cross section of these solar water- 



THE DAY-STAR 



65 



spout formations would measure hundreds of 
miles, instead of a few feet, as is the case with 
our waterspouts. 




Sun Spots 



66 IN STARLAND 

Their instability is noted in the fact that 
they sometimes increase or decrease in size 
while being observed; or they break up into 
two or more spots, or vanish altogether. On 
an average, they last two or three months, 
though they often remain but a week or a 
few days or hours. The longest record made 
by a sun spot was eighteen months. There 
may be hundreds of these at one time, and 
again none may be visible for weeks at a 
time. Some years, they are more numerous 
than in other years, reaching the maximum 
in number about every eleven years. At such 
periods, great magnetic disturbances occur 
on the earth. Auroral displays are most fre- 
quent and prominent at such times; so it is 
conceded by astronomers that there is a con- 
nection between the sun spots and our mag- 
netic storms and northern lights, which are 
electrical displays. 

The spots vary from fifty thousand to one 
hundred and eighty thousand miles in diame- 
ter. The earth, if tossed into almost any one 
of them, would be lost to view as is a small 
bowlder in the crater of a volcano. Some- 
times a score of worlds like our earth could 
be laid in line across one of these spots with- 
out completely hiding it. 



"the day-star" 67 

The sun spots aid in determining the time 
of rotation of the sun on its axis, which has 
been ascertained to be twenty-five and a 
fourth days. We are indebted to Galileo 
and his telescope for their discovery. 

WHAT THE SUN DOES 

The sun is the timekeeper for our solar 
system, ruling not only the day and the 
night, but also the year and the seasons. It 
"says to the earth wrapped in the mantle of 
winter, 'Bloom again;' and the snows melt, 
the ice retires, vegetation breaks forth, birds 
sing, and spring is about us." 

The light of the sun, after passing through 
space for ninety-three million miles, streams 
unhindered through the glass in our windows, 
warming and lighting our homes. Only about 
three fourths of the heat from white-hot 
platinum can pass through glass; and only 
about six per cent of the heat from copper at 
seven hundred and fifty-two degrees passes 
through glass, ninety-four per cent being ab- 
sorbed by it. We know that very little of 
the obscure dark heat from our stoves and 
furnaces passes out through the glass of our 
windows. If it were transmitted through 
glass as readily as the sunlight is, we should 



C>8 IN STARLAND 

find the artificial heating of our homes an 
almost impossible task. Herein is revealed 
a glimpse of that omniscience, that all- 
wisdom, displayed in thousands of other ways 
in the creation and adaptation of the earth 
for man's home. 

The sun also has a strange chemical power. 
"It kisses the cold earth, and it blushes with 
flowers and moistens the fruit and grain. We 
are feeble creatures, and the sun gives us 
force. By it the light winds move one eighth 
of a mile an hour, the storm fifty miles, and 
the hurricane one hundred. The force is as 
the square of the velocity. It is by means 
of the sun that the fisherman's white-sailed 
ships are blown safely home. So the sun 
carries off the miasma of the marsh, the pollu- 
tion of the cities, and then sends the winds to 
wash and cleanse themselves in the sea-spray." 

It "says to the sea, held in the grasp of 
gravitation, 'Rise from your bed! Let mil- 
lions of tons of water fly on the wings of the 
viewless air, hundreds of miles to the distant 
mountains, and pour there those millions of 
tons that shall refresh a whole continent, and 
shall gather in rivers fitted to bear the com- 
merce and the navies of nations.' Gravitation 



"the day-star" 69 

says, 'I will hold every particle of this ocean 
as near the center of the earth as I can.' 
Sunshine speaks with its word of power, 'Up 
and away!' and in the wreathing mists of 
morning these myriads of tons rise in the 
air, fly away hundreds of miles, and supply 
all the Niagaras, Mississippis, and Amazons 
of the earth." From these comes the power 
that turns the machinery of all the Lowells 
and Manchesters of the world. Surely it is 
not in vain that we heed the admonition to 
put our trust in Him who "calleth for the 
waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon 
the face of the earth: the Lord is His name." 
Amos 5: 8. 

Our great beds of coal are but the con- 
densed sunshine of the antediluvian world, the 
magnificent vegetation that flourished before 
the Flood, now supplying our furnaces, light- 
ing our homes, and running our factories, 
trains, and boats. In view of all this 
service, we exclaim, Well is it that "in them 
hath He set a tabernacle for the sun"! 

"The night has a thousand eyes, 
And the day but one; 
Yet the light of a whole world dies 
With the setting sun. ,, 



THE WANDERERS 

"The worlds were framed by the word of God." He- 
brews 11: 3. 

"He commanded, and they were created." Psalm 148: 5. 

A CLOSE student of the heavens night 
after night, will observe that several 
bright starlike bodies move about among the 
groups of stars. These are the planets, or 
wandering worlds, the term "planet" being 
taken from the Greek word for wanderer. 
Planets are often called stars, morning and 
evening stars; but they are not stars in the 
true sense, for stars are suns, supposedly with 
worlds, or dark bodies, revolving around 
them. Planets shine by the reflected light of 
the star around which they revolve, while the 
stars shine by their own light. The planets 
of our system, when viewed through a tele- 
scope, have an appreciable breadth, or disk; 
while the fixed stars still appear as points of 
light, so great is their distance from the earth. 
The major planets of our system are eight 
in number, and named in their order from the 
sun, are, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, 
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The 

(70) 



THE WANDERERS 71 

minor planets form a group having their 
orbits between those of Mars and Jupiter. 

Mercury and Venus, being within the orbit 
of the earth, are called inferior planets; and 
the five having their orbits outside the earth's 
are known as the superior planets. If you 
will make a drawing representing our solar 
system, and observe where the sun would 
appear on the sky as you look at it from the 
earth in various positions, then locate the in- 
ferior planets in the same way, you will see 
that these planets, Mercury and Venus, al- 
ways appear in about the same part of the 
sky as the sun, Mercury never being seen 
more than twenty-eight degrees from the 
sun, and Venus never more than forty-eight 
degrees. Therefore, if you desire to find 
these stars when they are evening stars, you 
will need to look for them not far from the 
setting sun. 

From your drawing, you may also observe 
that an inferior planet, as it revolves about 
the sun, is twice in conjunction with the 
sun — that is, in line with the sun as seen 
from the earth. When it passes between the 
earth and the sun, it is in inferior conjunction, 



72 IN STARLAND 

and its unlighted side is toward us. It is in 
superior conjunction when the sun lies be- 
tween it and the earth; and in this position, it 
is always invisible, for the sun hides it 
from us. 

When either of the inferior planets comes 
in direct line between the earth and the sun, 
it appears as a dark spot upon the sun. This 
is called a transit. There can never be a 
transit of a superior planet, as the orbits of 
these lie outside the earth's orbit. 

When an inferior planet is east of the sun, 
it sets later than the sun, and therefore is an 
evening star; when it is west of the sun, it 
rises before the sun, and hence is a morn- 
ing star. 

The planets all move in elliptical orbits, 
with the sun at one of the foci. They move 
fastest when nearest the sun, or at peri- 
helion — peri meaning near, and helion sun; 
and slowest when at aphelion, or the point in 
the orbit farthest from the sun. 

The planets all rotate upon their axes from 
west to east; and they all move in that same 
direction around the sun, which is opposite to 
the motion of the hands of a watch. 



THE WANDERERS 73 

If you live in north temperate latitude, you 
need not look for the sun, the moon, or any 
of the planets to appear in the sky north of 
your zenith, or the point directly over your 
head. All these will appear between the 
zenith and the southern horizon, in a belt only 
sixteen degrees wide, called the zodiac. 

"the sparkling one" 

Mercury was called "the sparkling one" by 
the ancient Greeks, because, not appearing 
so high in the heavens as the other planets, 
its light passes through a thicker and more 
hazy layer of the atmosphere, and hence 
shines with a less steady, or a twinkling, light. 
It is the smallest of the major planets, hav- 
ing a diameter of about three thousand 
miles, and a volume one thirtieth that of the 
earth. It is also the nearest planet to the 
sun, its average distance from that luminary 
being thirty-six million miles. Thus a given 
area upon Mercury receives about seven times 
the heat and light an equal area on the earth 
would receive. 

Mercury whirls about the sun at the rate 
of thirty miles a second, its period of revo- 



74 IN STARLAND 

lution being only eighty-eight days, less than 
one fourth the time required by the earth to 
make its revolution. Its time of rotation 
seems to be the same as its time of revolution. 
If this is true, "it is a world with two faces: 
one bathed in everlasting day, blistering 
under a scorching sun; the other wrapped in 
eternal night, freezing under the bitter cold 
of empty space." These conditions might be 
ameliorated by the character of the planet's 
atmosphere. 

The most interesting phenomenon con- 
nected with Mercury is its occasional transit 
over the disk of the sun. This occurs when 
it gets into direct line between the earth and 
the sun, or when the planet is at one of its 
nodes. The transits are observed only in the 
early part of May and November; but this 
does not mean that they occur every May 
and November, for there were only thirteen 
transits of Mercury during the nineteenth 
century. The next one is scheduled to occur 
in 1924. 

Mercury is best seen as evening star in 
the years when it is farthest east of the sun 
in March or April. If you remember that it 



THE WANDERERS 75 

can never be very far from the sun, you will 
know where to look for it. 

"the queen or beauty" 

So brilliant is Venus that she was called 
by the ancients, Phosphorus, Lucifer, and 
Hesperus. "The shepherd's star" is another 
appropriate name given to Venus. She is 
sometimes bright enough to cast a shadow, 
and is often clearly visible in full daylight. 
Once when Napoleon went to Luxemburg to 
be feted, he was surprised, on his arrival, to 
find the populace more interested in observ- 
ing a celestial object than in him or his 
brilliant staff. Upon inquiry, he found that 
they were observing what in their supersti- 
tion they regarded as his star, the star of the 
conqueror of Italy. When the emperor him- 
self recognized that it was Venus shining 
brightly upon them at midday, he too was 
interested. In June of 1921, Venus attracted 
much attention because of its daylight bril- 
liancy, as that year it reached its maximum 
brilliancy, which occurs only every eighth 
year. 

The excessive brilliancy of Venus is thought 
to be due in part to the cloudy condition 
of her atmosphere, as our great snow-white 



76 IN STARLAND 

cumulus clouds show that such masses reflect 
light better than the general landscape. 

Venus is not visible at all times of year; so 
if you are anxious to make the acquaintance 
of this goddess of beauty, you should ascer- 
tain from an almanac, or from some other 
source, when she is to be morning or evening 
star. Like Mercury, she keeps near the sun, 
though she ventures considerably farther 
away than does that planet. If you find that 
Venus is to be evening star at a certain time, 
look for her in the western sky soon after 
sunset. If you miss seeing her on the eve- 
ning planned, you need not allow your morn- 
ing rest to be broken in an effort to redeem 
your failure ; for Venus cannot be morning 
and evening star at the same time. 

During the month of October, 1921, Venus, 
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were all morning 
stars, and appeared in a place in the sky not 
larger than the belt of Orion. Venus, being 
the swiftest traveler, swept past all the others, 
making a triple conjunction, such as occurs 
only once in twenty years. 

Venus is seven thousand six hundred miles 
in diameter, in size almost a twin to the earth. 
She travels in the least elliptical orbit of all 



THE WANDERERS 77 

the planets, and her mean distance from the 
sun is sixty-seven million miles. She is some- 
times only twenty-five million miles from the 
earth. Her period of revolution is two hun- 
dred and twenty-five days, and it is thought 
that she completes a rotation in the same time. 

Since Venus is an inferior planet, she like 
Mercury sometimes passes directly between 
the earth and the sun. Her transits are not 
so frequent as those of Mercury. There have 
been only seven transits of Venus since that 
of 1518, a period of more than four hundred 
years. The last one occurred in 1882, and 
no other is due until the year 2004. Others 
are scheduled to occur in 2012, 2117, 2125, 
2247, since they occur at intervals of 8; 
1051/2 ; 8; ml/2 years. 

It is interesting to watch Venus, with other 
heavenly bodies, meet the predictions of as- 
tronomers. Surely the prophet Isaiah was 
right when he said, "Not one faileth." An 
astronomer announces "that on such a year, 
month, day, hour, and second, a celestial 
body will occupy a certain position in the 
heavens. At the time indicated, we point our 
telescope to the place, and, at the instant, 
true beyond the accuracy of any timepiece, 



78 IN STARLAND 

the orb sweeps into view! A prediction of 
the Nautical Almanac is received with as 
much confidence as if it were a fact con- 
tained in a book of history. 'On the trackless 
ocean, this book is the mariner's trusted friend 
and counselor; daily and nightly its revela- 
tions bring safety to ships in all parts of the 
world. It is something more than a mere 
book. It is an ever-present manifestation of 
the order and harmony of the universe." 

Early astronomers learned that a transit 
of Venus could be used in determining the 
sun's distance from the earth; so when the 
transit of 1761 was about due, a French 
astronomer, Le Gentil, was sent out to the 
East Indies by the French Academy, to make 
observations. At this time, France was at 
war with England, so "the English pre- 
vented his making his first port. High winds 
afterward kept him out at sea till the transit 
was over. He then resolved to remain abroad 
until after the transit of 1769. Eight long 
years passed, and the morning of June 3, 
1769, dawned bright and beautiful. With 
his instruments all in place, Le Gentil was 
counting the moments for the long-awaited 
transit to begin; when, suddenly, the sky 



THE WANDERERS 79 

grew black with clouds, and a tropical storm, 
the first in days, swept by. Meantime Venus 
came and went, and the ill-fated Le Gentil 
had again lost the opportunity of years. 
Prostrated by his bitter disappointment, it 
was two weeks before he could hold his pen 
to write the story of his second failure." 

Fortunately, some have been more success- 
ful than Le, Gentil. Horrox, an amateur 
astronomer living near Liverpool, and his 
associate, William Crabtree, were the first 
persons to observe a transit of Venus, and 
the only ones to observe the one of 1639. 
From calculations, it was decided that a 
transit must occur on December 24, 1639. 
Horrox began his observations on that day 
at sunrise. But true to his regular custom, 
when the hour for church arrived, he left his 
instrument and went to church. However, 
almost immediately on his return, there was 
a rift in the clouds which rendered the sun 
distinctly visible, and he says, "as if di- 
vine Providence encouraged my aspirations; 
when — oh, most gratifying spectacle! the 
object of so many earnest wishes! — I per- 
ceived a new spot of perfectly round form 



80 IN STARLAND 

that had just entered upon the left limb of 
the sun." 

With Galileo's telescope, Venus vindicated 
the Copernican theory ; for the claim had been 
made that if, as this theory held, the sun was 
the center of our system, and the planets re- 
volved around it, Mercury and Venus should 
show all the phases of the moon. The tele- 
scope revealed the phases. And it is a curious 
fact that when Venus appears the very bright- 
est to us that she ever does, she is only at 
the crescent phase instead of full; but she is 
then twice as near to the earth as she is at 
some other times. 



VI 
THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 

"Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee." Job 12 : 8. 

THE earth, like Mercury and Venus, is 
one of the heavenly bodies, and appears 
to other worlds as a bright star in the sky. 
It is the third planet of our system in dis- 
tance from the sun, being a little less than 
ninety-three million miles from that luminary. 
It is larger than either Mercury or Venus, 
its equatorial diameter being seven thousand 
nine hundred and twenty-five miles, which 
would make its circumference at the equator 
about twenty-five thousand miles, and its 
volume two hundred and sixty billion cubic 
miles. Its weight is given as six thousand 
quadrillion tons. 

THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH 

The spherical form of the earth is now ac- 
cepted as fact, though men were slow in 
giving credence to the idea. Some held that 
it was an immense flat, circular plane, after 
the order of a pancake, with a river flowing 
around it. Others thought it to be rectangu- 
lar in shape. Plato thought it a cube, and 

(81) 



82 • IN STARLAND 

other celebrities said it was egg-shaped. Long 
before the days of Columbus, there were some 
who pronounced the earth a sphere, Pythago- 
ras having used a sphere in his schoolroom; 
but Columbus is credited with being the first 
to venture boldly out upon a great under- 
taking based solely upon the idea of a spheri- 
cal or oval surface. 

So conclusive and abundant are the proofs 
that the earth is a sphere, that we now won- 
der that men so long held to the flat-earth 
theory, or to other equally erroneous ideas. 
Some of the observations that have settled the 
controversy over the shape of the earth fol- 
low: 

The appearance of vessels approaching the 
shore indicates that the surface of the earth 
is convex, like that of a sphere, for the tops 
of the masts are seen before the hull. 

The earth has been circumnavigated, prac- 
tically from north to south, as well as from 
east to west. Magellan's three-year voyage 
around the world swept away much doubt. 
If the earth were cylindrical, like a stove- 
pipe, it could be circumnavigated; but the 
circumnavigations have been so varied as to 
prove it spherical. 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 83 

The shadow of the earth on the moon dur- 
ing lunar eclipses is always such as only a 
sphere casts. 

If you were at the equator, the North Star 
would lie on your horizon; but as you pass 
from the equator toward the north, your hori- 
zon dips below the North Star, or the star is 
raised above the horizon, by an amount equal 
to the latitude. If one is in latitude fifty 
degrees, the North Star is just fifty degrees 
above the horizon. Only on a curved surface 
could the altitude of the star change with the 
latitude. 

If one should dig down into the earth fifty 
feet perpendicularly, or radially to the sur- 
face, then extend the excavation at right 
angles to the perpendicular depth, it would 
gradually grow shallower. To maintain a 
mean depth of fifty feet, the depth must oc- 
casionally be corrected by steps. 

The fact that the middle one of three tall 
stakes set a long distance apart, and project- 
ing equally above a body of still water, ap- 
pears the tallest, proves the rotundity of the 
earth. To illustrate this point, set up on a 
book three small candles one inch apart, each 
projecting to an equal* height above the sur- 



84 IN STARLAND 

face of the book. As you sight across them, 
they appear of equal length. Now if you 
take a football, and place the three candles 
on it in a line several inches apart, each 
projecting equally above the surface of the 
ball, and sight across them as before, the 
middle one will appear the tallest. This is 
because of the curvature of the ball. Years 
ago two men were discussing the shape of the 
earth, one asserting that it was flat, and the 
other, that it was round. Finally a large 
sum of money was wagered on the proposi- 
tion. The one who won the bet, proved the 
curvature of the earth by setting up three 
stakes, a mile apart, in the Thames River. 
These projected equally above the water. 
Then to observers, the middle one appeared 
the tallest. The judges regarded this as suf- 
ficient proof of the curvature of the earth, to 
win the money. 

In surveying, corrections or jogs are made 
at certain places in the north-and-south lines, 
on account of the curvature of the earth. 

The fact that places have different zeniths 
and different noon hours is proof that the 
earth is a sphere. The zenith is the point in 
the sky directly overhead. If the earth were 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAX 



85 



a 'plane, the zeniths of two persons, or of a 
person at different points on the earth, would 
appear to be at a common point, as prolonged 
parallel lines appear to converge to the same 
point in the sky. Railway rails appear to 
meet at a distance of four miles. On a sphere, 





the lines passing- through the zeniths of dif- 
ferent observers and the center of the earth 
would diverge rather than converge, so no 
two places would have the same zenith; and 
as this is the condition that exists, the con- 
clusion is logical that the earth is a sphere. 
The same reasoning applies to the question 
of time. 



86 IN STARLAND 

The horizon of an observer at any point 
on the surface of the earth is always circular. 
This can be true only in case of a sphere. 

While these facts prove the globular form 
of the earth, they do not prove it to be a per- 
fect sphere. It has been found to be an 
oblate spheroid, that is, a sphere flattened at 
the poles and bulged at the equator, making 
the polar diameter less than the equatorial. 
There is a variation of nearly twenty-seven 
miles between these two diameters. Bodies 
weigh slightly less at the equator than else- 
where on the earth, and the weight increases 
as the body moves toward the pole, weighing 
most at the poles. A man weighing one hun- 
dred and ninety pounds at the equator would 
weigh one hundred and ninety-one pounds 
at the pole. This difference in weight is at- 
tributable to two causes. When a ball fas- 
tened to a string is whirled about the hand, it 
constantly tends to fly away from the center; 
the force producing this tendency is known as 
centrifugal force. The rotation of the earth 
causes a body to tend to fly away from its 
surface; and since the earth rotates fastest 
at the equator, the centrifugal force is the 
greatest there. Since this force acts in op- 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 87 

^position to gravity, the weight would be 
lessened — for the weight of a body is only 
the measure of the pull of gravity upon it. 

The rotation of the earth does not account 
for all of the difference in weight between 
a body at the equator and at the pole. As- 
suming that the pole is just thirteen and five 
tenths miles, as it has been found to be, 
nearer the center of gravity, this would ac- 
count for the increase of weight. As no other 
reason can be given for this increase of 
gravity manifested at the pole, it is logically 
attributed to the flattening of the earth at 
the poles. But the oblateness is actually 
demonstrated by the fact that the degrees of 
latitude grow larger toward the pole, show- 
ing that the curvature of the earth near the 
pole is part of a larger circle than that at the 
equator. The difference between a degree at 
the equator and one at the pole is over three 
thousand feet. On a perfect sphere, the de- 
grees are equal. 

While the surface of the earth-sphere seems 
very irregular to us, the distance between the 
highest mountain and the deepest part of the 
ocean bed being about twelve miles, yet on a 
globe fifteen feet in diameter, Mt. Everest 



88 IN STARLAND 

would be represented by a projection but 
one eighth of an inch high, and the greatest 
.known ocean depth would be represented by 
a depression one seventh of an inch deep. On 
smaller globes, the irregularities become prac- 
tically insignificant. 

THE ATMOSPHERE 

We live at the bottom of an atmospheric 
ocean that is as wonderful as the watery one 
that covers so large a part of the earth. The 
atmospheric ocean is conceded to be much 
deeper than the deepest place in the Pacific, 
its depth being variously estimated from fifty 
to five hundred miles. Clouds do not reach 
above ten or twelve miles. 

The air is highly rarified above a height of 
six or eight miles, as aviators can testify, 
oxygen tanks being called into service long 
before a height of forty thousand and eight 
hundred feet is reached — the greatest dis- 
tance that man has yet penetrated the at- 
mospheric heights. As a rule, with each 
ascent of three and one half miles, the density 
of the air is halved; and for every ascent of 
three hundred feet, the temperature is low- 
ered one degree. 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 89 

This gaseous substance that completely 
envelops the earth is a marvelously inert but 
highly useful mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, 
argon, and carbon dioxide, with considerable 
water vapor. The first two gases form 
twenty-nine thirtieths of the whole atmos- 
phere, argon and allied gases, with the carbon 
dioxide, forming the major part of the re- 
maining thirtieth. 

The total amount of carbon in the air is 
estimated to be sufficient to keep all our gar- 
dens and crops growing for twenty-two years, 
or a forest covering our whole globe for one 
third of that time. 

Not until Galileo's time did scientific men 
admit that air exerted pressure, and therefore 
had weight. We are told that learned men 
discussed and experimented in an effort to 
ascertain whether air had w r eight, but always 
gave forth unblushing] y a negative dictum. 
Yet the Scriptures had been saying, all 
through the centuries, that the Lord had 
given weight to the winds, or to the air. 
Finally one of Galileo's pupils solved the 
problem affirmatively by an interesting ex- 
periment. In the attempt to prove that the 
weight, or pressure, of the air made the water 



90 IN STARLAND 

rise in a water pump to a certain height, he 
took a glass tube four feet long, and, filling 
it with mercury, inverted the open end in 
a dish of mercury, whereupon the mercury 
fell a few inches, leaving a vacuum in the 
upper end of the tube, and a column of mer- 
cury thirty inches high in the tube. What 
made the mercury remain in the tube? Evi- 
dently it was the downward pressure of the 
air on the top of the mercury in the dish. 
Later experiments proved this to be true; 
for when the air was removed from the top 
of the mercury in the dish, the mercury would 
fall out of the tube, or when the air was re- 
moved from the tube and left upon the mer- 
cury in the dish, the air would push the 
mercury from the dish into the tube. Now 
Torricelli reasoned, If the pressure of the 
air will sustain a mercury column about 
thirty inches high, since water is only about 
one fourteenth as heavy as mercury, it should 
support a column of water thirty-two feet 
high, or fourteen times as high as the mer- 
cury column. 

This being the height at which water is 
raised in an ordinary lift or suction pump, 
Torricelli boldly announced that the air has 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 91 

weight, exerting at sea level a pressure of 
about fifteen pounds on every square inch of 
surface, or a ton to every square foot. The 
greater the height, the less the density. There 
are high plateaus where the pressure is hardly 
more than two thirds of what it is at sea 
level. The weight, or pressure, of the air 
forces the water of a well up into the pipe 
connected with the pump, after the air has 
been largely withdrawn from the inside of 
the pipe. 

The air, through its weight and motion, is 
of inestimable service to man: it drives sail- 
ing vessels, windmills, and other machinery; 
makes possible various kinds of pneumatic 
service; supports the flight of birds; and 
scatters pollen grains and seeds. Through its 
composition, it maintains life by supplying 
oxygen and carbon dioxide to the plant world, 
and oxygen to the animal world. It supports 
combustion, through the union of its oxygen 
with the substance burned. It diffuses heat, 
cold, and moisture over the earth, through its 
circulatory currents. The climate of each 
planet is quite dependent upon the character 
of its atmosphere. 



92 IN STARLAND 

The atmosphere diffuses the light from the 
sun so that objects not in the direct rays are 
made visible. If it were not for this, the 
surface of the earth would be illuminated 
only where the direct rays fall. If it were 
not for the atmosphere, we should have a far 
less colorful world; for to it we owe the glory 
of sunrise and sunset. Halos and coronas, 
rings of light, sometimes beautifully colored, 
are frequently seen surrounding the sun and 
the moon. These are caused by the presence 
of minute particles of ice or water held in 
suspension in the atmosphere. We should 
also have an altogether silent or soundless 
world were it not for the air. How deeply 
we should appreciate this marvelous aerial 
provision for our comfort and pleasure, as 
well as for our very existence! 

ROTATION OF THE EARTH 

The earth rotates on its shorter axis from 
west to east, once in twenty-four hours, caus- 
ing day and night, and the apparent rising 
and setting of the heavenly bodies. The 
earth, in its rotary motion, makes an accurate 
timekeeper; because the day is invariable, 
not a change of a thousandth of a second in 
a thousand years having been detected. How 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 93 

significant in this connection is the question 
the Lord put to Job: "Hast thou commanded 
the morning since thy days; and caused the 
dayspring to know his place?" This work is 
not for man. Surely it is the Creator who, 
day after day, turns our great globe toward 
the sun "as clay to the seal." 

Ptolemy and his successors rejected the 
theory of the rotation of the earth. Coper- 
nicus espoused the idea, but could produce no 
proof. His only argument was that there 
was more probability that the earth rotated 
than that all the heavenly bodies revolved 
around it. Even as late as the sixteenth cen- 
tury of the Christian era, the idea seemed 
sacrilegious to many; and Galileo, who be- 
lieved in the rotation, was compelled by 
church authorities to recant or else suffer 
continued persecution. But the oft-told 
story is that he muttered to himself as he 
left the presence of his adversaries, "It moves 
just the same." 

So it does; and the fact has been fully 
demonstrated, though no proof was given 
until 1851, when Foucault performed his 
celebrated pendulum experiment at the Pan- 
theon in Paris, From the dome of the 



94 IN STARLAND 

Pantheon, he suspended an iron ball by a 
wire two hundred feet long, so that it could 
oscillate freely. The ball had a sharp style 
attached to it; and as it swung over a table 
strewn with sand, it left a mark in the sand. 
The fact that it never retraced its path, but 
always traced a new one a little to the right 
of the last mark, showed that the floor of the 
building was turning around under the pen- 
dulum, which phenomenon proved that the 
earth must be rotating from west to east. 

An experiment that I have seen described, 
which you can perform in your own home, 
will prove to you that the earth moves, as 
conclusively as some of the expensive and 
complicated instruments in large laboratories : 
Nearly fill a large bowl a foot or more in 
diameter with water. Sprinkle the surface 
of the water with finely powdered resin, or 
some other powder that will not easily dis- 
solve in water. Now sprinkle a straight line 
of coal dust about an inch wide upon the 
resin from the center to the circumference, 
continuing the line up over the edge of the 
bowl. After an interval of several hours, 
you will find that the black line on the sur- 
face of the water and that on the bowl do not 



. THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 95 

now coincide as they did when made. The 
only conclusion that can be drawn from this 
observation is that "the bowl has been carried 
round by the motion of the earth and twisted 
from its original position, but the water in 
the bowl, -being free to turn, has not been 
moved so much. In other words, the earth 
swung through a considerable arc from west 
to east, and left the water almost stationary." 

Another experiment gives equally conclus- 
ive proof of the rotation of the earth. Drop 
a ball from some high tower, as the Washing- 
ton Monument, and note where it strikes the 
ground, You will find that it does not strike 
the ground at a point radially below the one 
from which it was dropped, but always at a 
point to the east of that. While it is falling, 
the earth, by its rotation, carries it eastward, 
making it fall to the east of a radial line 
drawn from the top of the tower. 

Our trade and anti-trade winds, with the 
£>cean currents, testify to the rotation of the 
earth; for they would have a north-and-south 
direction were it not that the rotation of the 
earth deflects them from this course. For 
example, take the trade winds. The air over 
the equator, becoming intensely heated, is 



96 IN STARLAND 

pushed up and out by incoming currents of 
heavier air from points north or south of 
the equator. These cold currents have the 
speed of rotation that the earth had at the 
point from which they started, which is slower 
than for the equator. As they move toward 
the equator, they are unable to keep up with 
the rapid eastward motion of the earth, and 
fall behind the meridian, or the north-and- 
south lines, making the northern wind seem 
to come from the northeast, and the southern 
one from the southeast. 

The anti-trades are subject to the same 
influence; but as they start from the equa- 
torial regions, where the velocity of rotation 
is greater than it is where the currents come 
down nearer the surface of the earth, they 
get ahead of the meridian, and so appear to 
come from the northwest and the southwest. 

Were the atmosphere to fail to move with 
the earth as it turns over at its great speed, 
we should not prosecute our journey so peace- 
ably as we now do, but should be caught in 
a fearful cataclysm, our severest tornadoes 
being small affairs in comparison. 

Since at the equator the earth is approxi- 
mately twenty-five thousand miles in cir- 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 97 

cumference, a person at the equator is whirled 
through space by the rotation of the earth 
at the rate of a thousand miles an hour; but 
the circumference of the earth decreasing to- 
ward the pole, the speed of the earth at a 
point between the equator and the pole is 
less than at the equator. The speed at which 
New York City travels is about seven hun- 
dred and eighty miles an hour; and of a 
place at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, six 
hundred and eighty-two miles; while at the 
pole, the rate is zero. The apparent motion 
of the stars is affected accordingly. 

The rotation of the earth permits an ex- 
tended view of the heavenly bodies during an 
evening's observation, as there is an ever- 
moving panorama passing before one. The 
rotation also causes sun, moon, and stars to 
appear to rise in the east and to set in the 
west, since the earth is actually moving in the 
opposite direction. This seems an easy prob- 
lem to us, but it was the stone of stumbling 
to astronomers until the time of Copernicus. 

The sun rises in the exact east shortly after 
the middle of March; then the next day, it 
rises a little to the north of east; and a little 
farther to the north each succeeding day, 



98 IN STARLAND 

until on the last of June or thereabouts it 
rises twenty-three and a half degrees north of 
east. Then it begins to retrace its course, 
rising a little farther south each succeeding 
day, until in September it again rises in the 
exact east. After this, it rises a little farther 
south each succeeding day, until it reaches a 
point just twenty- three and a half degrees 
south of the east point, when it starts on its 
northward journey. The sun thus seems to 
travel back and forth within a space of forty- 
seven degrees, crossing the equator, or the 
east point, twice each year. This swinging or 
oscillatory motion is due to the sun's apparent 
motion in the ecliptic, which is inclined to the 
celestial equator at an angle of twenty-three 
and a half degrees. 

The vernal equinox is the time the sun 
rises in the exact east point on its northward 
journey; the summer solstice is the time it 
reaches the point farthest north, or the Tropic 
of Cancer; and the time when it crosses the 
equator again after three months is the time 
of the autumnal equinox; then, as it passes 
on to the south, it reaches its most southern 
point, the Tropic of Capricorn, at the time 
of the winter solstice. The vernal equinox, 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 99 

then, marks the beginning of spring, and 
the autumnal equinox the beginning of fall. 
The problem of the inequality of our days 
and nights, so vexing to some, becomes per- 
fectly clear when one challenges the imagi- 
nation to picture clearly what takes place as 
the sun makes its daily journey across the 
sky. Think of the sun as being in the exact 
east point. As the earth rotates, the sun 
shines down perpendicularly over every part 
of the equator, leaving, as it were, a golden 
circle about the earth at the equator. Now 
think of the sun as rising ten degrees to the 
north of the equator. While it is in that 
position, the earth makes a rotation, which 
causes the sun to shine down perpendicularly 
over a circle ten degrees to the north of the 
equator, leaving a golden circle of light about 
the earth ten degrees north of the equator. 
Later the sun rises fifteen degrees to the 
north of the east point; and as the earth ro- 
tates, there is left a golden circle about the 
earth fifteen degrees north of the equator. 
Again it rises twenty-three and a half de- 
grees to the north of east, the farthest north- 
ern point it ever reaches; so a golden line 
is traced on the earth that coincides with the 



100 IN STARLAND 

Tropic of Cancer. As it traverses the return 
southern journey, it will on successive days 
trace the same golden diurnal circles that it 
did when going north. As it reaches the east 
point again, it traces a line all about the earth 
at the equator. When it reaches its farthest 
southern point, it travels in the Tropic of 
Capricorn, twenty-three and a half degrees 
south of the equator. The sun therefore 
traverses as diurnal circles, the year around, 
the equator or the circles parallel to the 
equator. 

Now, as the true horizon of any place on 
the equator passes through the center and 
poles of the celestial sphere, it will cut all 
diurnal circles in halves; so the sun would be 
above the horizon just as long as it would be 
below, and hence the days and the nights at 
points on the equator are always of the same 
length. By making a drawing to show how 
the horizon of any given place cuts the diurnal 
circles, one can tell the relation of the day 
and the night at any time of year. 

If a person is in north latitude thirty-five 
degrees, his horizon will dip below the north 
pole just thirty-five degrees. It will there- 
fore cut all diurnal circles, except one, un- 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 101 

equally. The longer part of the circles north 
of the equator being above the horizon, the 
days will be longer than the nights, as is true 
from March to September, while the sun rises 
north of the equator. The part of the diur- 
nal circles above the horizon while the sun is 
south of the east point, is smaller than the part 
below the horizon; hence the days are shorter 
than the nights from September to March. 

When the sun rises at the precise east 
point, as it does in March and September, it 
traverses the celestial equator as a diurnal 
circle; hence all places on the earth have 
equal days and nights twice each year, for 
every horizon divides the equator into halves. 

A person at the north pole would have the 
equator for a horizon. So in March, the sun 
would pass around the horizon, never setting; 
and all the time from March to June, it 
would be climbing a little higher up in the 
heavens, but would be traveling in diurnal 
circles parallel to the equator, yet never set- 
ting. By September, it would again be at the 
horizon line. Then it would pass below the 
horizon, not to be seen for six months. But 
this does not mean that there would be ab- 
solute darkness at the pole for six months. 



102 IN STARLAND 

The long twilight and the moon help to 
shorten the period of absolute night to about 
three weeks. Only a few degrees' removal 
from the pole is sufficient to cause the period 
of utter darkness to vanish entirely. 

THE REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH 

The earth completes a revolution about the 
sun in three hundred sixty-five and one 
fourth days. In that time, it travels nearly 
six hundred million miles; hence its average 
speed is more than eighteen miles a second, 
or a million and a half miles a day. Drop a 
ball from the height of four feet. In the 
time the ball takes to reach the floor, the 
earth will have given us all a free ride of more 
than nine miles. 

The revolution of the earth brings a dif- 
ferent set of stars into our view at different 
seasons; and the revolution, with the fact 
that the axis is inclined twenty-three and a 
half degrees, and that as the earth revolves, 
the pole always points to the same part of 
the heavens, produces our seasons. 

TIME PROBLEMS 

When the sun crosses the meridian of a 
place, it is noon at that place; and the time 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 103 

that intervenes between two successive trans- 
its of the sun across the meridian constitutes 
a solar day. The time that elapses between 
successive transits of a star across the meri- 
dian is a sidereal day. The latter is the true 
day, registering the exact time of a rotation 
of the earth. It is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 
4.09 seconds long. 

A solar day is twenty-four hours long. 
This comes from the fact that while the earth 
is making a rotation, it moves on in its orbit 
nearly a degree, and thus it has to continue 
to rotate a little farther before it meets the 
sun, which, because of the rotation of the 
earth, has apparently fallen to the east of 
where it was before. About four minutes are 
required for the earth to turn over sufficiently 
to bring the sun on the meridian ; which makes 
the solar day longer than the sidereal by four 
minutes. 

Since the earth moves farther in its orbit 
on some days than on others, the solar days 
vary in length. To construct clocks to re- 
cord days of varying length w r ould be both 
difficult and expensive; and for convenience 
and economy, the world uses the mean da3% 
which is the average length of all the solar 



104 IX STARLAND 

days for a year. This uniform day greatly 
simplifies many other processes of civilized 
life besides that of clock making. 

Astronomical observatories have a clock 
that keeps sidereal time, as for many pur- 
poses, time can be more conveniently reckoned 
by the stars than by the sun. If all our 
clocks throughout the country should stop 
some day, we should be compelled to look to 
the astronomer for the correct time. Every 
observatory is furnished with reliable star 
tables, made from the combined observations 
of astronomers for more than a century. 
These tell at what moment of time through- 
out the year sun, moon, and stars appear on 
the meridian of a place. Then, in the event 
that the world's timepieces went on a strike, 
all that astronomers would have to do would 
be to watch from their observatories for the 
passage of given stars, or the vernal equinox, 
across the meridian, and telegraph the re- 
corded time to various points. 

Whether our clocks are put completely out 
of commission or not, they need to be regu- 
lated often, and this also is accomplished by 
the astronomer. In our own country, an 
electric signal is sent out every day at noon 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 105 

from the Naval Observatory at Washington, 
D. C, and is "received by the central New 
York office of the telegraph company, where 
it is used to keep correct a very fine clock, 
which may be called the time standard of the 
telegraph company. This clock, in turn, has 
automatic electric connections, by means of 
which it is made to send out signals over 
what are called time wires that go all over 
the city. Jewelers, and others who desire 
correct time, arrange to have a small electric 
sounder in their offices connected with the 
time wires." Thousands of places daily re- 
ceive the correct time from the Naval Ob- 
servatory. 

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, Washington, New Orleans, and San 
Francisco also make use of time balls. These 
are dropped automatically from high towers 
every day at exact noon. In some British 
possessions, the time signal — generally the 
firing of a gun — is usually given at one 
o'clock in the afternoon instead of at noon. 

There are four times in the year when the 
mean time and the apparent time agree. 
These are in April, June, September, and 
December. During the- summer months, the 



106 IN STARLAND 

variation between sun time and that of our 
clocks is slight; but in the early part of No- 
vember, sun time is faster than clock time, 
the sun setting more than sixteen minutes 
before sunset time by the clock. About the 
middle of February, the sun sets later than 
clock time by more than fourteen minutes. 
One has to take account of this difference, 
called the equation of time, in adjusting sun 
time with clock time. 

That different places should have different 
times is evident from the fact that the rota- 
tion of the earth from west to east causes the 
sun to rise in the east and to set in the west. 
This gives Boston sunrise before Chicago, and 
St. Louis before San Francisco. The eastern 
of any two cities always has later time than 
the western. Twenty- four hours are required 
for the sun to pass over the circle of the 
earth, or three hundred and sixty degrees; 
therefore one hour is required for it to pass 
over fifteen degrees. So if two places are 
just fifteen degrees apart, they will have a 
difference of one hour of time. If a place is 
forty-five degrees west of another, it will have 
noon three hours after the eastern place. 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 107 

The situation is complicated when cities 
are so located that their local times differ by- 
odd numbers of hours, minutes, and seconds- 
To obviate the perplexing situation caused by 
the use of local time everywhere, there was 
introduced in the United States about forty 
years ago what is known as standard or rail- 
road time. The country is divided into four 
time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and 
Pacific. Each zone is fifteen degrees wide, 
and so arranged that its center is in longitude 
seventy-five, ninety, one hundred five, or one 
hundred twenty degrees, making a difference 
in time of anr even number of hours. All 
places within a given zone have the time of 
its middle point. The first zone will be five 
hours behind Greenwich time, and the last 
one, nine hours ; or reckoning from the Wash- 
ington, D. C, meridian, it will be three hours 
behind the time of the first zone. 

If a person is traveling from New York 
to Chicago, he knows there will be a differ- 
ence of one hour in . time ; so he turns his 
watch back one hour. This system early 
proved itself so convenient that standard time 
has been adopted by all the leading countries 
of the world. 



108 IN STARLAND 

There is another time problem that mysti- 
fies many travelers, and that is the dropping 
or adding of a day as the one hundred and 
eightieth meridian is crossed in the Pacific 
Ocean. Professor Harold Jacoby, of Colum- 
bia University, gives such a direct and simple 
explanation of this proceeding, that we pass 
it on to you: 

"We have seen that of any two places, the 
eastern always has the later time. Now, im- 
agining that an island is exactly one hundred 
eighty degrees from Greenwich, we can con- 
sider it as being either one hundred eighty 
degrees east or one hundred eighty degrees 
west. But if we call it one hundred eighty 
degrees east, its time will be twelve hours 
later than Greenwich; and if we call it one 
hundred eighty degrees west, its time will be 
twelve hours earlier than Greenwich. Evi- 
dently there will be a difference of just 
twenty-four hours, or one whole day, between 
these two possible ways of reckoning its time. 
This circumstance has actually led to con- 
siderable confusion in some of the islands of 
the Pacific Ocean. The navigators who dis- 
covered the various islands naturally gave 
them the date which they brought from Eu- 



THE PLANETARY HOME OF MAN 109 

rope. And as some of these navigators sailed 
eastward, around the Cape of Good Hope, 
and others westward, around Cape Horn, the 
dates they gave to the several islands differed 
by just one day. 

"The state of affairs at the present time 
has been adjusted by a sort of informal 
agreement. An arbitrary, irregular line has 
been drawn on the map near the one hun- 
dred eightieth longitude circle; and it has 
been decided that the islands on the east side 
of this line shall count their longitudes west 
from Greenwich, and those west of the line 
shall count longitude east from Greenwich. 
Thus Samoa is nearly one hundred eighty 
degrees west of Greenwich, while the Fiji 
Islands are nearly one hundred eighty de- 
grees east. Yet the islands are very near 
each other, though the arbitrary line passes 
between them. As a result, when it is Sun- 
day in Samoa it is Monday in the Fiji Is- 
lands. The arbitrary line described here is 
sometimes called the International Date 
Line." 

"IT SHALL TEACH THEE" 

As one of the heavenly bodies, the earth is 
not of exceptional interest; but as the home 



110 IN STARLAND 

of man, as a world that has been unmade, as 
it were, through man's faithless course, and as 
a world that is to be made new and become 
the center of interest to the universe of God 
through Heaven's own intervention, it is of 
peculiar interest. To the thoughtful student 
of its varied experience, it reveals lessons of 
wisdom and encouragement. 



VII 
"THE SOUNDLESS WORLD" 

"And God made two great lights; the greater light 
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night." 
Genesis 1: 16. 

"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of 
the moon." 1 Corinthians 15:41. 

"Soon as the evening shades prevail, 
The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 
And nightly to the listening earth 
Proclaims the story of her birth." 

— Addison, 

THE moon seems to be the earth's own 
particular possession, since it is the near- 
est heavenly body to the earth, and revolves 
about it. Our largest telescopes virtually 
bring it within sixty or eighty miles of us, 
though its distance from the earth is about 
two hundred and forty thousand miles. It 
travels in an elliptical orbit, with the earth at 
one of the foci, so that it is sometimes twenty- 
six thousand miles nearer to us than at other 
times. Though it is near when compared 
with other heavenly bodies, our most ambi- 
tious aviators, maintaining a speed of one 
hundred and fifty miles an hour day and 
night, would have to travel for more than 
two months to reach the moon. 

(ill) 



112 IN STARLAND 

The sun is about four hundred times as far 
away as the moon, and the nearest star is 
more than one hundred million times as dis- 
tant; so it is natural that we should have a 
neighborly feeling toward our satellite. 

The apparent size of the moon is the same 
as that of the sun, a little more than half a 
degree in diameter; yet we know the sun's 
diameter is about four hundred times that of 
the moon. The fact that the moon is about 
four hundred times nearer to us than the sun, 
offsets the sun's greater size, making the two 
appear almost equal. 

One of the first lessons to learn in the study 
of the heavens is that things are not always 
as they appear. For example, the sun and 
the moon seem larger when near the horizon 
than when nearly overhead. We might rea- 
sonably think they would appear larger when 
near the zenith, for the light coming from 
them has to travel about four thousand miles 
less then than when they are near the hori- 
zon. The reason why these bodies seem 
nearer to us in the latter position, is because, 
in our unconscious comparison, we judge 
them to be not far away from the trees and 
other terrestrial objects between us and them. 



"the soundless world" 113 

Seeming nearer, they seem larger. This is 
only one of many familiar optical illusions. 
The moon, as well as the sun, appears red 
at sunset because blue rays more than the red 
are intercepted and scattered by the particles 
of dust and smoke in the air. 

"The disk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high, 
Appears at first but as a bloodshot eye; 
And when his chariot downward 's driven to bed, 
His ball is with the same suffusion red; 
But mounted high on his meridian race, 
All bright he shines, and with a better face." 

Astronomers have found little if any evi- 
dence of an atmosphere about our satellite. 
Since air is necessary for the transmission of 
sound, the moon is therefore called the sound- 
less world. Because of the absence of air, 
other interesting phenomena also are want- 
ing. "The sky is black and overspread with 
stars even at midday. There is no twilight, 
for the sun bursts instantly into day, and, 
after a fortnight's glare, as suddenly gives 
place to night ; there are no clouds ; no winds ; 
no rainbow; no blue sky; no gorgeous tinting 
of the heavens at sunrise and sunset; no deli- 
cate shading; no soft blending of colors, but 
only sharp outlines of sun and shade." 



114 IN STARLAND 

The moon always keeps the same side to- 
ward us as it moves around the earth. It 
therefore rotates on its axis in the same time 
that it makes a revolution, which is twenty- 
seven and a third days. The fact that it ro- 
tates will be evident if you will pass an apple 
round about another object, keeping the same 
face always toward the central object. The 
apple must perform a rotation on its axis, 
else each side would in turn face the center. 

Because the moon is slightly tipped on its- 
axis, we sometimes get glimpses beyond each 
pole; and then, because the moon's velocity 
in its orbit is not uniform, we sometimes see 
around the corner, as it were, getting a 
glimpse of a little part of the half turned 
from us. But in general, we always see the 
same side. 

As the earth during a sidereal revolution 
has moved on its orbit, two days more are re- 
quired for the moon to get in the same posi- 
tion relative to the sun and the earth, thus 
completing a synodic or lunar month of 
twenty-nine and a half days. The movement 
of the moon naturally divides the year into 
months. 

If the earth's diameter were just four times 
that of the moon, its volume, or size, would 



"the soundless world" 115 

be sixty-four times that of the moon; but 
since the moon is about two thousand one 
hundred and sixty miles in diameter, and the 
earth seven thousand nine hundred and eight- 
een, only about fifty moons would be required 
to make a globe equal to the earth. 

As the moon revolves around the earth, it 
passes through its various phases. When it 
comes between us and the sun, the side of the 
moon that is lighted up is turned away from 
us, so we have what is called the new moon; 
as it proceeds on in its path, we get a glimpse 
of the lighted side, and we have the crescent 
moon; then from night to night the crescent 
broadens until we see half of the lighted side, 
and the moon is at its first quarter. As it 
passes on, we see more and more of the 
lighted side, until the gibbous moon becomes 
full. It then occupies just the opposite point 
in the heavens from the sun, and we see the 
entire bright side. Now, as the moon passes 
on in her orbit, she changes from full moon 
to gibbous, third quarter, crescent, and finally 
is in conjunction with the sun — that is, be- 
tween the earth and the sun — and we do not 
see her. For a few days after new moon, 
we can distinguish the outline of the un- 



116 IN STARLAND 

lighted part, sometimes spoken of as the old 
moon in the arms of the new. This yellowish 
light is due to the reflection of the earth's 
rays upon the moon. It is "earth shine." 

The earth would appear to inhabitants on 
the moon to pass through all phases common 
to the moon. What a superb body the earth 
when full would make, as it would equal the 
light of thirteen full moons! But unfortu- 
nately, there seem to be no lunar inhabitants 
to enjoy this splendid picture. 

The crescent moon sometimes stands nearly 
perpendicular to the horizon; it is then popu- 
larly called the "wet" moon, supposedly hav- 
ing spilled upon the earth the water it held. 
Again the crescent lies almost parallel with 
the horizon, with the horns up; it is then 
called the "dry" moon. The position of the 
crescent has nothing to do with the weather, 
but it reveals the relative position of moon, 
sun, and earth. 

"The moon and the weather 
May change together, 
But change of the moon 
Does not change the weather; 
If we'd no moon at all — 

And that may seem strange — 
We still would have weather 

That's subject to change." 




Photograph of a Portion of the Moon 



(117) 



118 IN STARLAND 

The surface of the moon is very broken, 
being pitted all over with immense craters 
resembling those of our volcanoes, though in- 
comparably larger. Kepler is credited with 
the idea that these deep holes were dug by 
supposed lunar inhabitants, to shield them- 
selves from the burning rays of the long lunar 
day. Had he known that some of them were 
more than a hundred miles in diameter and 
tens of thousands of feet deep, he might have 
hesitated to attribute to the populace such 
prodigious industry. To excavate even one 
of them would be like digging thousands of 
Panama Canals. 

Besides the craters, there are mountain 
ranges, peaks, clefts, and "rills," which out- 
rival anything of similar nature found on 
the earth. The moon has its Caucasus, Alps, 
and Apennine ranges; and its craters are 
graced with such noted names as Plato, Aris- 
tarchus, Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and 
Newton. 

Some of the lunar nomenclature is mislead- 
ing, since the maps show the "Sea of Storms," 
the "Sea of Showers," the "Sea of Tran- 
quillity," and other similar terms; but these 
represent great plains instead of oceans and 



"the soundless world" 119 

seas. Galileo, who thought them bodies of 
water, called them "oceans" and "seas," and 
the terms have been retained, though the 
moon seems to have no real lakes, rivers, or 
oceans. 

The moon presents an interesting picture 
through a telescope; and many of its surface 
irregularities may be observed through an 
ordinary field or opera glass. 

The astronomer now regards the camera 
as one of his most dependable instruments ; 
for recent photographs of the moon record 
details that would require an astronomer, 
using a powerful telescope, years to detect 
and map. 

SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSES 

The sun is eclipsed when the moon gets 
between the earth and the sun, and cuts off 





the light of the sun. If it cuts off all the 
light, or covers the entire face of the sun, 
there is a total solar eclipse; but if it hides 
only a part of the sun's disk, then there is a 



120 IN STARLAND 

partial eclipse. If the moon is in the part 
of its orbit the very farthest from us when an 
eclipse occurs, the moon will appear smaller, 
and so will not be able to hide the whole of 
the sun, but will leave a narrow ring of light 
around its own dark disk. This is an an- 
nular, or ring, eclipse. 

Lunar eclipses are caused by the earth 
coming between the sun and the moon, and 
cutting off the sun's light from the moon. 
If the moon passes completely into the long, 
dark shadow that the earth throws out into 
space, it is totally eclipsed; for the moon has 
no light of its own, and can then get none 
from the sun. If it passes only into the edge 
of the shadow, or the penumbra, it is par- 
tially eclipsed. 

The moon, even when completely eclipsed, 
appears of a reddish color, instead of being 
black, as we should expect. This is because 
certain rays of light, as they pass through 
the earth's atmosphere, are refracted, or bent 
up, into the umbra, or shadow, giving to the 
moon this peculiarly interesting tint. 

There can be lunar eclipses only at time of 
full moon, as the moon must be on the op- 
posite side of the earth from the sun to move 



"the soundless world" 121 

into the shadow of the earth. There would 
be eclipses every month at the full and new 
moons if the moon's orbit were not inclined 
to the ecliptic. But since it is, there can be 
total eclipses only when the moon is at one 
of the nodes, or points, where its path crosses 
the ecliptic. Then all three bodies are in 
direct line. At other times, the moon is 
either - above or else below the plane of the 
ecliptic. 

Astronomers can tell, hundreds of years 
ahead, just what eclipses are to occur during 
any given year. Solar eclipses are more 
numerous than lunar eclipses. There cannot 
be more than five solar eclipses in any one 
year, and there cannot be less than two. If 
five solar eclipses do occur in any one year — 
which is rarely the case — then there must be 
two lunar, making seven eclipses during the 
year. 

While solar eclipses occur oftener than 
lunar, yet many more lunar eclipses are vis- 
ible at a given place than there are solar 
eclipses. A total solar eclipse is visible from 
a given place only once on the average of 
three hundred and fifty years. The reason 
for this is that a solar eclipse lasts but six to 



122 IN STARLAND 

eight minutes at the longest, and is visible 
over a very small area of the earth; while 
every lunar eclipse lasts from one to four 
hours, and is visible at the same time over 
more than a whole hemisphere. In case of a 
solar eclipse, the moon's shadow thrown upon 
the earth is seldom more than one hundred 
miles in width, and hence the region in which 
the eclipse is total is small. In case of a 
lunar eclipse, the earth's shadow into which 
the moon passes is comparatively large. 

Anciently, to those not understanding the 
nature of eclipses, they were omens of evil. 
Because of this superstition, Columbus used 
the eclipse of March 1, 1504, to his advan- 
tage. His fleet being in great distress from 
want of supplies, and the inhabitants of the 
island of Jamaica having refused to assist in 
providing these, he threatened to deprive 
them of the light of the moon if they did not 
render the assistance needed. They paid 
little heed to his threats; but as the moon 
began to darken, they quickly vied with one 
another in bringing supplies. 

Mr. Garrett P. Serviss relates an unusu- 
ally interesting incident connected with the 
eclipse of the sun of June 28, 1451. It per- 



"the soundless world" 123 

tains to "the celebrated Five Nations, occupy- 
ing central New York at the time of the 
arrival of the white men. These Indians had 
a tradition that a great war between the 
Mohawks and the Senecas was averted by 
the interposition of Heaven. Some young 
Seneca warriors, bent on winning fame for 
themselves, went, in a time of peace, into the 
land of the Mohawks and made captive a 
number of girls who were at work in the 
cornfields. The captives were taken to Can- 
andaigua. Their arrival caused consterna- 
tion among the Senecas, whose chiefs knew 
well the terrible vengeance that the Mohawks 
would exact. Still, the Senecas also were a 
proud people; and when swift runners ar- 
rived demanding a humiliating submission, 
the Senecas responded with open defiance, and 
resolved to meet the Mohawks in battle. A 
host of Mohawk warriors thirsting for venge- 
ance, hurried on the forest trails to Can- 
andaigua, and the hostile ranks were about 
to close in deadly contest when one of the 
Mohawk girls cried out: 

"See! the Great Spirit is angry!' 
"She pointed to the sky, and, all eyes fol- 
lowing hers, they saw the sun in heaven be- 



124 IN STARLAND 

ginning to darken. Swiftly its light was 
withdrawn and night fell upon lake and 
forest. The warriors of both tribes dropped 
to their knees, and then an aged sachem of 
the Senecas called for the peace pipe. As 
it passed from lip to lip, the darkness light- 
ened, the sun slowly reappeared, and in a 
short time his smiling face was again bent 
down upon his red children. The captives 
were surrendered, reparation was made, and 
the Mohawks, with full quivers, marched back 
to their valley home." 

USES OF THE MOON 

The moon was given to rule the night; but 
it rules the day also, so far as the tides are 
concerned. If you have been at an ocean 
beach like Asbury Park or Atlantic City, and 
watched the tide come in, you know that some 
stupendous influence was at work. Perhaps 
you did not give the moon credit for the com- 
motion; but astronomers have found that it 
is largely responsible for the disturbance, 
though the sun takes part in the gigantic 
task of lifting the ocean up out of its bed and 
returning it thereto twice a day. Were it 
not that the sun is so far away from the 
earth, its influence on the tides would be 



THE SOUNDLESS WORLD 125 

vastly greater than that of the moon, since it 
is so much larger. 

The tidal waves pass about the earth 
rapidly, sometimes at the rate of five hun- 
dred miles an hour. About every twelve 
hours and twenty-five minutes, the water be- 
gins to flow in toward the shore; it climbs 
farther and farther up on the beach for about 
six hours, then it recedes slowly but surely 
for about the same length of time. Such a 
strange phenomenon could but set wise men 
searching for the cause, but the problem 
baffled them for long years. Finally, after 
Newton discovered the law of gravitation, the 
problem of the tides did not have to wait 
much longer. 

This is the accepted solution: The tides are 
due to the attraction of the sun and moon 
on the waters of the ocean. The attraction 
of these bodies pulls the water up and away 
from the earth on the side next to them; and 
then, because the earth is nearer than the 
water on the opposite side of the earth, the 
earth is pulled away from the water, leaving 
it heaped up there also. Thus we have high 
tides on opposite sides of the earth at the 
same time. 



126 IN STARLAND 

The water does not yield immediately to 
this gigantic pull; so high tides do not oc- 
cur when the moon is directly over a place, 
or on the meridian, but several hours later. 
The tides may also be impeded by islands 
and continents deflecting the wave. 

When the sun adds its attractive power to 
that of the moon, as it does at time of new 
and full moons, we have the spring tides, 
which are the highest tides. When the moon 
is at the first or the third quarter, the two 
forces oppose each other, and then we have 
the lowest or neap tides. There are other po- 
sitions of these bodies which also affect the 
tides. 

The height of the tide varies according to 
the place. In the open sea, the tide may not 
be noticeable; but where the waves break on 
the shore or are forced into bays or narrow 
channels, the water sometimes piles up to a 
height of sixty or seventy-five feet, as is the 
case at the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. 

Advantage is taken of the rise and fall of 
the tide, in navigation, and also as water 
power for mills and factories; but perhaps 
the chief use of the tides is in their efficacy in 
purifying land and water. 



"the soundless world" 127 

In some localities, in going up rivers and 
bays, the tide checks the river water, and 
causes it to deposit its sediment, thus filling 
the harbor. Millions of dollars have to be 
expended annually to counteract this unap- 
preciated work of the tides. 

"How like a queen comes forth the lovely moon, 
Walking in beauty to her midnight throne!" 

— Croly. 



VIII 
THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firma- 
ment showeth His handiwork." Psalm 19: 1. 

"the ruddy world" 

NO planet has received more attention 
from the earth than has Mars. One 
of our large observatories is said to have 
taken a hundred thousand photographs of 
this planet. Its ruddy complexion makes it 
an attractive object among its lighter-colored 
associates, though there are several of the 
brighter stars of a reddish hue, Aldebaran in 
the constellation Hyades, and Betelgeuse in 
Orion, being among the number. 

To the astronomer, Mars seems the most 
like our own world of all the planets, though 
it is not nearly so large, its diameter being 
but four thousand two hundred miles. Its 
volume is therefore but one seventh that of 
the earth. Its gravity is so much less than 
that of the earth, that a body falls but six 
feet a second instead of sixteen, and a body 
weighing one hundred pounds here would 
weigh but thirty-eight on Mars. Its mean 
distance from the sun is one hundred forty- 

(128) 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 129 

one million five hundred thousand miles, and 
its average distance from us at opposition is 
forty-eight million five hundred thousand 
miles, though at times it comes within thirty- 
four million miles of the earth. 

Mars makes a rotation in twenty-four hours 
and thirty-seven minutes; and a revolution in 
six hundred and eighty-seven days, or nearly 
two years. Its axis is inclined about twenty- 
seven degrees; so its seasons, astronomically, 
are quite similar to ours. 

The Martians have the advantage over us, 
in that two moons grace their evening sky. 
These were discovered in 1877, by Professor 
Asaph Hall, of the United States Naval 
Observatory, Washington, D. C. They are 
so small that it is difficult to measure their 
diameters. The Lowell Observatory fixes 
that of Phobos at thirty-six miles, and that 
of Deimos at ten miles. Their discovery 
is said to have been as great a feat of tele- 
scopic vision "as for a man in Boston to see 
a tennis ball at Philadelphia." Deimos re- 
volves about Mars in thirty hours and eight- 
een minutes, while Phobos requires but seven 
hours and thirty-nine minutes; but Deimos is 
fourteen thousand six hundred miles from 



130 IN STARLAND 

Mars, while Phobos is but five thousand eight 
hundred miles. 

THE GEOGRAPHY OF MARS 

As it seems to have been on our earth be- 
fore the Flood, so it is on Mars, the land 
exceeds the water. "Here every continent 
is an island; there every sea is a lake." 

The surface of Mars has received much 
study; and still astronomers can speak with 
but little definite knowledge concerning what 
they observe. 

Among the most striking features of this 
planet are the great white spots at the poles. 
These are supposed to be extensive snow and 
ice caps similar to those that cover our own 
poles; for these are observed to increase dur- 
ing the Martian winter and decrease with the 
summer, astronomers having watched the ap- 
parent melting of the ice. What appear to 
be continents and islands, seas and lakes, 
have also been observed; but the "canals" of 
Mars have been the subject of the most con- 
jecture, and possibly of the most study. "The 
map of Mars made at the Lowell Observatory 
at Flagstaff, Arizona, exhibits a bewildering 
network of canals, connecting small dark 
spots scattered over the surface. Not in- 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 131 

frequently half a dozen canals radiate from 
a single spot, going straight to other spots. 
Most of the canals choose the shortest path 
from one spot to another: a few are curved. 
Some do not run from one small dark spot 
to another, but connect large dark areas, or 
go from a small spot to a large area, or 
occasionally connect two other canals. The 
small spots are less than one hundred and 
fifty miles in diameter. The length of the 
canals ranges from a few hundred to thirty- 
five hundred miles. Their average breadth 
is thirty miles. The most mysterious fact 
about them is that they become double at 
times, the two new canals being about two 
hundred miles apart, and veritable twins. 
Schiaparelli thinks that the doubling may be 
periodical, and connected in some way with 
the planet's seasons. 

"The canals have naturally been supposed 
to be waterways. When a polar cap melts, 
the canals in the neighborhood become darker 
and wider, and remain dark until the snow 
stops melting. Then the width of the canals 
diminishes. These appearances have led 
Schiaparelli to the conclusion that the canals 
are natural furrows, through which the water 



132 IN STARLAND 

is carried from the poles equatorward. Mr. 
Percival Lowell advocates the theory that 
the canals are strips of vegetation, which are 
watered by canals too small to be visible to 
us. A small spot at the junction of several 
canals is an oasis, according to this view. No 
satisfactory explanation of the doubling of 
the canals has been given. The majority of 
astronomers, while freely admitting the ex- 
istence of the markings called canals, are 
inclined to be conservative with reference to 
any explanation of their nature. It has been 
aptly said that it is better not to know so 
much, than to know so many things that are 
not so." 

THE PIGMY WORLDS 

A swarm of tiny worlds, one thousand or 
more in number, each with its own orbit, 
travels around the sun, between the two 
superior planets Mars and Jupiter. The 
largest of the group is less than five hundred 
miles in diameter, while the majority vary 
from fifty to ten miles in diameter. The 
most interesting point about these asteroids, 
or starlike bodies, is their discovery. Before 
Kepler's time, astronomers gave credence to 




(133) 



134 IN STARLAND 

a law known as Bode's law. To express this 
law, they wrote the following series of num- 
bers : 

3 6 12 24 48 96 

Each number, with the exception of the 
first, is double the one preceding it. Adding 
four to each of the series, they had — 

4 7 10 16 28 52 100 

These numbers they found represented 
quite nearly the distances of the principal 
planets from the sun, the actual distances 
being : 



M 


V 


E 


M 


J 


S 


3.9 


7.2 


10 


15.2 


52.9 


95.4 



No planet was known to exist between 
Mars and Jupiter, at the place represented 
by the number twenty-eight. Astronomers 
reasoned that if the law is true, there should 
be a planet at some point between these two 
bodies. This rule is not exact, but it led to 
good results; for when astronomers, obedient 
to this suggestion, turned their telescopes 
upon the heavens, they found not one planet, 
but many small planets. 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 135 

True, they searched in vain from Kepler's 
time until 1801 before being rewarded by the 
discovery of the first asteroid; but on the 
first day of 1801, Ceres was observed. Even 
then Ceres was discovered by accident, and 
not as the direct result of Bode's law. 

It is said that an extra star was shown on 
Wollaston's catalogue, due to an error of the 
press ; and the discoverer of Ceres was search- 
ing for this extra star when he found Ceres. 
Pallas was discovered the next year, Juno 
two years later, and Vesta in 1807. Nearly 
forty years passed before another planet re- 
warded the search. Since that time, astrono- 
mers have been more successful, discovering 
them "with almost embarrassing rapidity." 
The fact that some of these are hardly more 
than playthings, makes their discovery quite 
remarkable. 

The one-time director of the Ann Arbor, 
Michigan, observatory, Professor J. C. Wat- 
son, had the good fortune to add twenty-two 
to the list already found. Each newly dis- 
covered asteroid entails much labor on the 
part of astronomers in computing its size, 
orbit, specific gravity*, and other data, with- 
out yielding any large returns for this 



136 IN STARLAND 

trouble; so Professor Watson very gener- 
ously apologized, we might say, for his dis- 
coveries, by leaving a fund to care for those 
he brought to light. Professor J. A. Peters, 
another American astronomer, has forty- 
eight of the minor planets to his credit; and 
Professor Palisa, of Vienna, over eighty. 

A name and a number have been given 
to each of the asteroids, the number being 
printed in a circle. Why any of them should 
be afflicted with such names as Xantippe, 
Vendobona, Mulmosyne, Sophrosyne, Wal- 
purga, is not clear; but the one bearing the 
name of Chicago commemorates the meeting 
of the Astronomical Congress at Chicago dur- 
ing the World's Fair. 

The fact that a planet moves, while a star 
does not, or rather, that the stars are too 
distant for their motion to be easily detected, 
makes the stars appear as points of light 
on the exposed photographic plate, while a 
planet, because of its motion, leaves a streak 
of light. Many of these asteroids have re- 
vealed their presence through this telltale 
streak. 

Though the asteroids are small and ap- 
parently unimportant, their origin has given 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 137 

the sages a problem they cannot solve. Some 
have suggested that a larger planet must have 
exploded, but this idea has been shown to be 
untenable. Some day we may be able to 
understand their origin, though now even 
the wisest can only theorize about it. 

On one of the asteroids, falling w r ould not 
be so disastrous an occurrence as it often is 
on our world; for the force of gravity on 
Ceres, the largest planetoid, is but one 
twenty-third that of the earth, so that a body 
would fall only about seven inches the first 
second, instead of sixteen feet. Professor 
H. A. Howe remarks that "in a jumping 
exhibition, the spectators could eat lunch 
while waiting for the contestants to come 
back to terra firma." 

"THE BELTED WORLD" 

Jupiter, "the belted world," is the giant 
of our solar system, being larger than all the 
other planets put together. It is about ninety 
thousand miles in diameter, which would 
make it more than thirteen hundred times as 
large as our earth. If it were as near to us 
as is the moon, it would preempt the space 
in the sky of one thousand full moons. Yet, 
if Jupiter were transported to the nearest 



138 IN STAKLAND 

star, Alpha Centauri, and became a plan- 
etary attendant of that orb, our largest tele- 
scopes would seek for it in vain. 

Jupiter is about four hundred and eighty- 
three million miles from the sun. "His ap- 
parent movement among the fixed stars is 
slow and majestic, comporting well with his 
vast dimensions and the dignity conferred by 
his nine attendant worlds or moons. He ad- 
vances through the zodiac at the rate of one 
sign a year, since it takes him twelve of our 
years to make a revolution about the sun." 
But in this time he has traveled at least three 
billion miles, and has had to prosecute this 
journey at the rate of five hundred miles a 
minute. This is no small feat for such a 
gigantic body. While bowling along in his 
orbit at this great speed, he rotates on his 
axis once every nine hours and fifty-five min- 
utes, less than half the time required by the 
earth to make its rotation. This causes a 
place on the equator to traverse a distance of 
four hundred and seventy-three miles a min- 
ute, or over twenty-eight thousand miles an 
hour. 

Jupiter, like Venus, is thought to have a 
dense atmosphere, while that of Mars is rare. 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 139 

This planet is one of the most conspicuous 
and brilliant lights in the starry world. Its 
brilliance approaches that of Venus, though 
its light is not so silvery white, having a 
yellowish tinge. It is five or six times as 
brilliant as Sirius*, the brightest of the stars. 
When viewed through the telescope, its cloud 
belts and spots make it an exceptionally in- 
teresting object of study. The surface seems 
banded by parallel brownish or reddish belts, 
the most conspicuous ones being near the 
equator. The "belts and spots are supposed 
to be rifts in the clouds, through which we 
look down deeper into the atmosphere than 
elsewhere." 

Jupiter has nine moons. Hundreds of 
years elapsed after Galileo discovered four, 
before it was known to have others. The 
remaining five have been discovered since 
1892, the ninth having been discovered in 
September, 1914. Perhaps the end is not yet. 
The names of the longest known of Jupiter's 
retinue of satellites are: Io, Europa, Gany- 
mede, and Callisto. Ganymede, the largest, 
is thirty-seven hundred miles in diameter, 
nearly the size of Mars. The late Professor 
Charles Young calls the sixth and seventh 



140 IN STARLAND 

satellites tiny twin moons, which move in 
nearly circular interlocked orbits, the moons 
being seven million five hundred thousand 
miles from Jupiter. The eighth and ninth 
also seem to be twins, but are at twice the 
distance from Jupiter as the sixth and sev- 
enth. These revolve from east to west in- 
stead of in the regular way. 

Jupiter casts so long and large a shadow 
away from the sun that most of the satellites 
are eclipsed at each revolution. An observer 
on Jupiter would be able to record thousands 
of solar and lunar eclipses during one of the 
planet's years. The eclipses of Jupiter's 
moons led to the discovery of the velocity of 
light by a Danish astronomer in 1675. Hith- 
erto light was thought to travel from one 
point to another instantaneously. If a moon 
of Jupiter passes beliind Jupiter, the light of 
the sun is cut off from it; so it is invisible 
to us; it is eclipsed. Astronomers calculated 
the times of the eclipses ; but they found that 
sometimes the eclipse would occur fifteen 
minutes later or fifteen minutes earlier than 
predicted. Roemer, a Danish astronomer, 
conceived the idea that this was due to the 
time required for light to travel across the 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 141 

orbit. Later experiments verified this sug- 
gestion. 

In the accompanying diagram, "J repre- 
sents Jupiter; e one of the moons; S the 
sun; and T and t different positions of the 
earth in its orbit. When the earth is at T, 
the eclipse occurs sixteen minutes and thirty- 
six seconds earlier than at t. That interval 



mm 









of time is required for the light to travel 
across the earth's orbit, giving a velocity of 
about one hundred eighty-six thousand miles 
a second." 

"the world with the golden rings" 

In the days when there was little accurate 
knowledge of the heavens, and astrology held 
the people slaves to superstitions of all kinds, 
the planets were believed to influence the 
destinies of people. A person born when the 



142 IN STARLAND 

planet Jupiter ruled the heavens was des- 
tined to a career of good fortune and honor; 
while Mars, the god of war, led to martial 
deeds and military glory. Mercury was 
thought to rule over the arts, Venus over the 
affairs of love, and the less brilliant and less 
known Saturn was supposed to bring mis- 
fortune and sorrow. Thus the most interest- 
ing of planets never came into its own until 
after the invention of the telescope, when its 
wondrous charms were brought to light. 

If Jupiter is the king of the planets, Sat- 
urn is the queen. With her golden rings, 
beautifully tinted cloud belts, magnificent 
retinue of moons, Saturn is unquestionably 
the most enchanting and interesting object 
in the sky. 

The diameter of Saturn is seventy- four 
thousand miles, next to that of Jupiter. The 
planet is seven hundred times as large as the 
earth, and its mean distance from the sun is 
eight hundred and eighty-six million miles, 
one thousand times the diameter of the sun. 
This makes the planet travel over such an im- 
mense orbit that twenty-nine and a half years 
is consumed in the journey, though it travels 
at the rate of twenty-one thousand five hun- 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 143 

dred miles an hour, or three hundred and 
sixty miles a minute. 

If you once locate this yellowish star in 
the heavens, you will long be able to find it 
in approximately the same place. Certain 
almanacs tell in what constellation to look for 
it during any given month. 

While Saturn's year is much longer than 
ours, its day is shorter; for this great planet 
is thought to rotate once on its axis every 
ten hours and fourteen minutes. 

The most interesting feature of Saturn is 
its rings. Galileo was much perplexed by 
these, as were later astronomers. They could 
not tell what it was that gave the planet 
such a variety of phases; for sometimes these 
rings, if viewed from a certain angle, ap- 
peared as a fine line of light passing through 
the center of the planet at the equator, and 
extending out for some distance beyond the 
planet at each side; then again they would 
disappear altogether, and still again they 
would appear as broad surfaces about the 
planet; but at last the Dutch astronomer 
Huygens in 1655 discovered that what had 
perplexed and annoyed astronomers was a 
broad, flat ring nearly parallel to the planet's 

10 



144 IN STARLAND 

equator. Later astronomers found that this 
ring consisted of three concentric rings in- 
stead of one, which are continually whirling 
around Saturn, but which have the general 
appearance of one ring passing around the 
planet. The inner one is six thousand miles 
from Saturn. It is a dusky, semitransparent 
ring about eleven thousand miles in width. 
The second or middle ring is the brightest 
and broadest of the three, being about eight- 
een thousand miles wide. The outer one is 
separated from the middle one by a space or 
division called Cassini's division, from the 
Italian astronomer who discovered it. This 
space measures more than two thousand miles 
in width. The outer ring is darker than the 
middle one, but not so dusky as the inner. 
The diameter of this outer ring is about one 
hundred and seventy-five thousand miles. It 
is difficult to appreciate the immense size of 
this ring trio ; but if you think of the outer 
one as a great boulevard around which an 
automobile is traveling at the rate of fifty 
miles an hour, never stopping for rest or re- 
pairs, considerably more than a year would 
be required for it to return to its starting 
point; and in the meantime, it would have 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 145 

traveled nearly six hundred thousand miles. 
In that time, it could have traveled from the 
earth to the moon and back, and half way to 
the moon again; or around the earth more 
than a score of times. 

But these rings would hardly serve as a 
boulevard; for though they are many miles 
thick, they are not solid or continuous. They 
are thought to consist of myriads of small 
moons, closely packed together, each in its 
own orbit. In the dark rings, they are not 
so densely packed as in the bright one. An 
occasional rainbow is always an object of in- 
terest to us; what a wonderful spectacle tfiis 
system of rings, this multitude of moons, 
must make in the Saturnian sky! 

Besides this w r ealth of associated moons, 
Saturn has nine separate and distinct satel- 
lites. Their distances from the planet vary 
from many millions of miles to one hundred 
seventeen thousand; and they perform their 
revolutions in times varying from eighteen 
months to less than a day. The ninth satel- 
lite is estimated to be eight million miles 
distant. Its motion is retrograde. Professor 
W. H. Pickering, of the Harvard Observa- 
tory, discovered the ninth satellite in 1898, 



146 IN STARLAND 

and thought he discovered a tenth in 1904, but 
this supposition has not been fully vindicated. 
The largest of the moons, Titan, is about the 
size of Mercury, and it makes a revolution 
in sixteen days. It can be seen with a tele- 
scope of low power. The names of the satel- 
lites, given in the order of their distance from 
Saturn, are: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, 
Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Japetus, 
Phoebe. Mimas, the closest to Saturn, makes 
a revolution around the planet in twenty-two 
hours and thirty-seven minutes, while Phoebe 
requires sixteen months for a revolution. 

"the lonely worlds" 
Uranus and Neptune are the only planets 
with a story of their discovery, the rest hav- 
ing been known from antiquity. Until the 
eighteenth century, Saturn was supposed to 
mark the outer boundary of the solar system. 
These two planets are called "the lonely 
worlds," because they are on the outermost 
edge of our system, Uranus being nearly 
two billion miles from the sun, and Neptune 
nearly three billion miles. If you had started 
six thousand years ago to fly from the sun 
to Neptune, and had kept up a constant 
speed, night and day, of a mile a minute. 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 147 

you would have reached your intended desti- 
nation; but if you had immediately started 
on your return trip, even refusing overnight 
accommodations, you would not by this time 
have traversed even one fifth of the distance 
back to Uranus. To complete the return 
trip would require nearly another five thou- 
sand years. 

We can better appreciate the story of the 
discovery of Uranus, the first of the two to 
be found, if we first sketch briefly the life of 
the discoverer, William Herschel; and to 
make that as interesting as it deserves, we 
shall paraphrase a fascinating sketch given 
by Herschel's fellow countryman, Sir Robert 
S. Ball: 

William Herschel was born in Hanover, 
northern Germany. At the age of fourteen, 
he was made a member of the military band 
of the Hanoverian Guards. When war broke 
out between France and England, the French 
invaded Hanover, as it was then under the 
English crown. Young Herschel, with the 
rest of the guards, suffered terribly in one 
battle. This skirmish providing him with all 
the war thrills desired, he deserted the army 
and went to England. He secured a position 



148 IN STARLAND 

as organist of the Octagon Chapel at Bath; 
and in time, he acquired considerable fame as 
a music teacher and performer. He was not 
content, however, to devote all his time to 
music. He read and studied widely. After 
mastering higher mathematics, he turned to 
astronomy. Having his interest aroused in 
the study of the stars, he felt the need of a 
telescope, that he might penetrate deeper into 
the mysteries of the heavens. Telescopes 
being very expensive, he set about making 
one. His sister, Caroline, having come to 
live with him, was of great help to him in 
his work. So enthusiastic did he become over 
his telescope, that he would rush home from 
a concert, and without stopping to remove 
his laces and other concert apparel, would 
plunge into the grinding and polishing of 
mirrors for his telescope. 

In the year 1774, he got his first view of 
the heavens through his completed instrument. 
We must not imagine that every view through 
a telescope enriches the observer with some 
new discovery. Many persons are content to 
see for themselves the wonders that others 
have observed; but William Herschel meant 
to explore the heavens for himself. On the 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 149 

night of March 13, 1781, he turned his tele- 
scope upon Gemini, the Twins, and began 
to look at one star after another. Stars ap- 
pear as points of light; and while telescopes 
make them look brighter, they do not give 
them an appreciable disk. Herschel observed 
one that looked larger when viewed through 
his instrument. He thought he had discov- 
ered a comet, for only comets and planets 
increase in size when viewed through the tele- 
scope: He never even supposed there could 
be another planet ; but by further observation, 
he found that this body moved, and the char- 
acter of its motion showed that it was not a 
comet. So he announced the discovery of a 
planet. To discover a star would not have 
been counted a great thing, for one might as 
well talk of discovering a new grain of sand 
on the seashore. But the addition of another 
planet to our solar system was a remarkable 
gift to astronomical science. When George 
III, king of England, heard of Herschel's 
achievement, he summoned the astronomer to 
Windsor. Herschel obeyed, taking his tele- 
scope and maps of the heavens with him. 

When the news of his discovery was given 
out, every one began to talk about the organ- 



150 IN STARLAND 

ist at Bath; and, of course, some recalled that 
he was the one who many years before had 
deserted from the army. King George heard 
of this incident; so when Herschel was pre- 
sented to him, the king suggested that there 
was an item of business that should receive 
attention before the discussion of astronomi- 
cal discoveries. He thereupon handed Her- 
schel a paper, which proved to be a pardon 
to the deserter, written out by the king him- 
self. The astronomer's surprise was great, 
but it did not exceed his appreciation of the 
king's graciousness. Herschel then proceeded 
to unfold his discovery to the king; and in 
the evening, he, with his royal host, searched 
the heavens for its greatest treasures. The 
ladies of the court heard of the king's inter- 
view with the astronomer, and they begged 
that they also might have a view through the 
telescope. Herschel was especially anxious 
for the queen and the ladies of her court to 
vie\v Saturn. Early in the afternoon, it was 
evident that the clouds would not permit such 
a view; but the clever astronomer was not to 
be outwitted by the clouds. He therefore cut 
out a picture of Saturn, with its rings and 
moons ; and, tacking it up on a distant garden 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 151 

fence, and illuminating it with lamps, he was 
able to satisfy the ladies with an excellent 
view of the planet. 

The result of this visit to the king was an 
invitation to the astronomer to come to Wind- 
sor and devote his entire time to astronomical 
work, his salary and instruments being pro- 
vided by the king. As an expression of ap- 
preciation to the king, Herschel named his 
planet Georgium Sidus (the Georgian Star), 
in honor of the king. But as the other planets 
were named for heathen deities, the Conti- 
nental astronomers thought the king would 
hardly feel at home in such company, so 
changed the name to Uranus. 

This planet is one billion and eight hundred 
million miles from the sun; and it requires 
eighty- four years to make a revolution around 
the sun, and ten hours and fifty minutes to 
make a rotation on its axis. Uranus is about 
thirty thousand miles in diameter, which 
makes it about fifty-four times as large in 
volume as the earth. 

Uranus has four moons, Sir William Her- 
schel having discovered the two brightest, 
Oberon and Titania. The other two are Ariel 
and Umbriel. They are from five hundred to 



152 IN STARLAND 

one thousand miles in diameter. In opposi- 
tion to the rule observed generally throughout 
the solar svstem, the moons of Uranus re- 
volve backwards, that is, from east to west; 
and Uranus itself has been found to rotate 
in this same direction. 

NEPTUNE 

While Uranus was a "discovery," Nep- 
tune was a mathematical triumph. It came 
not by accident or from mere observation. 
Its existence was revealed by Uranus. A 
French astronomer published tables of the 
motion of Uranus by which its place at any 
given time in its orbit could be theoretically 
predicted. But Uranus refused to follow the 
path marked out for it. In the course of 
twenty years, the deviation from the pre- 
dicted path, though minute in itself, was 
seriously disturbing to mathematicians. Many 
questioned whether Newton's law of gravita- 
tion was not proving inoperative at this great 
distance from the sun. Finally the consensus 
of opinion seemed to be that Newton's law 
was all right, but that some unknown body, 
through its attraction for Uranus, was the 
cause of the discrepancy between the actual 
and the computed motions of the planet. Ac- 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 153 

cording to Professor Herbert A. Howe, of 
Denver University, the story runs as follows: 

"John Couch Adams, a tutor in the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, England, grappled 
with the problem. In October, 1845, he com- 
municated to the astronomer royal of Eng- 
land the elements of the orbit of the suspected 
planet, together w T ith a prediction of its place 
in the sky. But the astronomer royal did not 
regard these investigations of a young and 
comparatively unknown man as entitled to 
much confidence. He, however, called the at- 
tention of a few of his friends to them, and 
wrote Adams asking for further information: 
no reply reached him. He therefore pigeon- 
holed the manuscript. One of the friends 
wrote to Lassell, who possessed a fine two- 
foot reflector, which was mounted near Liver- 
pool, begging him to search for the planet. 
But Lassell was suffering from a sprained 
ankle, and when he recovered, the letter was 
nowhere to be found, and the telescopic 
search was not made. 

"Meanwhile Leverrier, a brilliant French 
astronomer, likewise a young man, had em- 
ployed his powers upon the same problem. 
On June 1, 1846, he sent a communication to 



154 IN STARLAND 

the French Academy of Sciences, giving the 
direction in which the planet was to be found. 

"The English astronomers, finding that Le- 
verrier's results agreed with those of Adams, 
awoke from their lethargy, and began to 
bestir themselves. Professor Challis, the as- 
tronomer of the University of Cambridge, 
began a search. Doubting the accuracy of 
the predictions, he began to map a large area 
of the sky, hoping -by comparison of maps 
of the same region made on different nights 
to detect the planet by its change of position 
if it were really there. 

"Sir John Herschel (son of Sir William), 
in a public address, said concerning the un- 
known body: 'We see it as Columbus saw 
America from the coast of Spain. Its move- 
ments have been felt, trembling along the 
far-reaching line of our analysis, with a cer- 
tainty hardly inferior to that of actual ob- 
servation.' 

"Three times Challis observed the planet, 
but did not look sharply enough to notice its 
disk, which was larger than that of the stars. 
While he was laboriously heaping up obser- 
vations and neglecting to compare them, the 
prize of discovery slipped from his grasp. 



THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 



155 



Leverrier had written to Galle, of Berlin, 
where excellent star charts were being made, 
asking him to direct his telescope to a certain 
point on the ecliptic, and saying that he 
would find within a degree of that point a 
new planet, as bright as a star of the ninth 



J UPITER 




MERCURY 

o 

VENUS 

o 

EARTH 

o 

MARS 

o 



Showing Relative Sizes of the Planets 

magnitude and having a. perceptible disk. 
Galle did as he was bidden, and found the 
planet within half an hour, on September 
23, 1846." 

The diameter of Neptune is about thirty 
thousand miles, and its mean distance from 



156 IN STARLAND 

the sun is two billion seven hundred and 
ninety-two million miles. It has therefore a 
marvelously long journey to make on its trip 
around the sun; but by keeping at it and 
averaging a speed of twelve thousand one 
hundred and thirty-nine miles an hour, it ac- 
complishes the stupendous task in nearly one 
hundred and sixty-five years. Its lone satel- 
lite performs the same curious feat as do 
those of Uranus, traveling from east to west 
instead of from west to east. It is about the 
same distance from Neptune as our moon is 
from the earth; but it appears to make a 
revolution around Neptune in six days. 



IX 
"THE RUNAWAYS OF THE SKY" 

"These wait all upon Thee." Psalm 104: 27. 
COMETS 

COMETS and meteors may aptly be 
termed the sky's runaways; for to the 
casual observer, they go where and when they 
list, and at whatever speed they elect. But 
modern astronomers have been able in part 
to tame these erratics, to solve some of the 
mysteries enshrouding them, so that now they 
are registered as reliable, law-abiding mem- 
bers of the celestial economy. Sir Isaac 
Newton was the first to prove their subservi- 
ence to the law of gravitation. 

Of these two classes of wanderers, comets 
perhaps merit first and chief attention. These 
heavenly bodies, generally irregular in form, 
and often having a long, cloudlike train or 
tail, flame out in the sky suddenly, and as 
suddenly disappear. They have fascinated 
observers for long years. 

The word "comet" comes from a word 
meaning long-haired, the evanescent tail sug- 
gesting the flowing locks of a maiden. The 

(157) 



158 IN STARLAND 

coma is the hazy cloud of luminous matter 
which is always present in a comet. The 
nucleus is the bright, starlike point near the 
center of the coma. In some cases, it is 
double or multiple; but in other comets, no 
nucleus is observable. The nucleus and the 
bright, foggy coma surrounding it form the 
head of the comet, which may vary in diame- 
ter in different comets from forty thousand 
miles to over a million. 

The comet of 1680 had a head estimated 
to be six hundred thousand miles in diameter ; 
that of 1892 exceeded eight hundred thousand 
miles; while the comet of 1811, in general 
the most remarkable comet ever known, and 
visible for nearly seventeen months, had a 
head that measured one million two hundred 
thousand miles in diameter. The tail is a 
continuation of the coma, a stream of milky 
light which widens as it recedes from the 
head. Sometimes a comet has no tail, and 
again it may have several, these growing or 
disappearing as the head changes its relation 
to the sun. 

The tail is always directed away from the 
sun. So a comet, on approaching that body, 
travels head foremost; but as it recedes, it 



<(.' 



THE RUNAWAYS OF THE SKY" 159 

goes tail foremost. The way the tail is 
thought to be formed makes this performance 
clear; for as the heat of the sun vaporizes the 
head, the little solid particles thus thrown off 
are immediately repelled, electrically it seems, 
and thrown back of the head in a stream 
constituting the tail. Thus the tail is not 
permanent, but is constantly being dissipated 
and renewed. This interesting appendage 
may increase in length and thickness at the 
rate of millions of miles a day, attaining, in 
the end, a fabulous length. 

The comet of 1843 had a tail estimated to 
be one hundred and fifty million miles long; 
that of 1861 possessed a still longer one. 
However, "a tail one tenth as long as these 
is reckoned highly respectable." 

A comet is seen only when it is near the 
sun. The great comet of 1882, bright enough 
to be seen at noonday, with its magnificent 
train one hundred million miles in length, 
came within three hundred thousand miles of 
the sun's surface. Yet there is no evidence 
that the warmth of welcome it received on 
this close visit persuaded it to change its 
regular schedule of visiting us only once in 
about eight hundred years. 

ii 



160 IN STAELAND 

The number of comets is not known. Kep- 
ler thought them as numerous as the fishes 
of the sea. If they are, they are slow to 
reveal themselves, for we have records of only 
about a thousand. The brightest ones were 
nearly all discovered before the nineteenth 
century, but there have been three hundred 
or more discovered since the beginning of that 
period. The large majority of these, how- 
ever, are too faint to be seen except through 
the telescope. 

Jean Pons, who lived from 1761-1831, was 
a doorkeeper at the observatory of Marseilles, 
France, but later became more famous as an 
astronomer than Thulis, the director of the 
observatory, and the one who taught and 
encouraged the erstwhile doorkeeper. No 
small degree of the fame of Pons came to 
him through his success as a comet hunter, he 
having thirty-seven to his credit. Among 
those discovered by him was Encke's comet, 
though it bears the name of the astronomer 
who determined its period of revolution, 
rather than that of its discoverer. 

Caroline Herschel, sister to Sir William 
Herschel, discovered eight comets; and Pro- 
fessor E. E. Barnard, an American astrono- 



THE RUNAWAYS OF THE SKY 161 

mer of note, discovered sixteen; while Dr. 
William Brooks, another American astrono- 
mer, discovered his twenty-seventh comet on 
October 20, 1912. 

Planets and stars keep their appointed 
places; but to early observers, comets seemed 
to dash into our system, unheralded and from 
any direction, remain a few weeks or months, 
and then hasten on, perhaps never to return. 
Yet careful observation has shown that they 
have regularly appointed paths and that some 
of them at least do return to us at regular 
intervals. These, astronomers have had the 
boldness to appropriate as a part of our solar 
system. Such is Halley's comet, which visits 
us about every seventy-six years ; Encke's, 
every three and a half years; Holmes's, with 
a period of less than seven years; Donati's, 
one of the finest comets ever seen, with a 
period of two thousand years; and a number 
of others. 

Halley's comet, which last visited our sys- 
tem in 1910, was the first to be counted as 
a regular visitor. It is the comet which as- 
sociated itself with the Norman Conquest of 
1066, and received its name from Edmund 
Halley, the English astronomer who, after 



162 IN STAELAND 

long study of comets in general and of this 
one in particular, predicted its return in 1758. 
This was the first prediction ever made of 
the return of a comet; and fortunately for 
the astronomical reputation of Mr. H alley, 
the expected visitor made its appearance on 
Christmas night of 1758, and continued its 
course toward the sun until March of the 
following year, when it started on the return 
journey. Unfortunately, Mr. Halley was 
not alive at the time of the fulfillment of 
his remarkable prophecy. It is interesting 
to note here that he who first achieved the 
feat of accurately ascertaining the revolu- 
tionary period of a comet, began his astro- 
nomical studies in boyhood, sending a paper 
to the Royal Society before he was twenty 
years of age. He it was, too, who made, on 
November 7, 1677, the first complete obser- 
vation of a transit of Mercury; who cata- 
logued the stars of the Southern Hemisphere 
from St. Helena; and who was generous 
enough to give to the world at his own ex- 
pense the result of a fellow astronomer's 
observations and deductions, — those of Sir 
Isaac Newton's "Principia." 




Halley's Comet 



(163) 



164 IN STARLAND 

After Mr. Halley started the ball rolling, 
astronomers found that other comets are 
regular visitors — traveling in closed or el- 
liptical orbits. About seventy-five of these 
are now known. Even those which seem to 
move in open curves, parabolas and hyper- 
bolas, are now thought to be really moving 
in immense elliptical orbits, to traverse which 
requires thousands of years. 

The comet of 1811 is estimated to have a 
period of three thousand years; and some 
others are thought to have a much longer 
period. 

There are few speed problems exceeding 
in interest that of comets. The cojnet of 
1843, with a tail one hundred and fifty million 
miles long, swept half way around the sun in 
two hours, which required a speed of more 
than a million miles an hour. -However, 
this is only about one seven-hundredth as 
fast as light and electricity travel. 

All comets that have periods ranging from 
three to eight years pass very close to the 
orbit of Jupiter, and are classified as be- 
longing to "Jupiter's family of comets," 
which family now numbers about thirty. The 
other planets are less fortunate, Neptune 



"the runaways of the sky" 165 

being credited with only six, and Saturn and 
Uranus with two each. Halley's comet forms 
one of the Neptune group. 

Comets have in ages past aroused as much 
superstition and fear as have eclipses of the 
sun and moon, which have been known "to 
stop battles, arrest the march of armies, and 
dictate treaties," because of the terror they 
inspired. While the presence of comets once 
presaged war, pestilence, and death, now 
these picturesque members of the universe 
are welcomed as messengers of the Creator's 
power and love, and not as gloomy portents 
of His wrath. 

"Stranger of heaven, I bid thee hail ! 
Shred from the pall of glory riven, 
That flashest in celestial gale 

Broad pennon of the King of heaven ! 

"Whate'er portends thy front of fire 
And streaming locks, so lovely pale, 
Or peace to man or judgment dire, 
Stranger of heaven, I bid thee hail!" 

METEORS 

Meteors are small bodies that are encoun- 
tered by the earth in its revolution around 
the sun, and rendered luminous by the re- 
sistance of the earth's atmosphere. They 
appear as shooting stars, fireballs, and me- 



166 IN STARLAND 

teorites. The term "shooting stars" is usually 
applied to those brilliant points that suddenly 
dart through the air and leave a fiery train 
behind, this light being due to the heat gener- 
ated by the friction of the air as the meteor 
rapidly penetrates it. Meteors often come in 
showers, and there may be some seen every 
night. 

Our atmosphere is likened by a noted as- 
tronomer to a vast net in which if a small 
meteor is caught it burns out, thus closing 
its career forever; but if it succeeds in dash- 
ing past our earth without becoming en- 
tangled in this net, it may pursue its path 
unhindered. 

Fireballs, or bolides, are similar to shooting 
stars, only larger, denser, and not so soon 
consumed in passing through the air. They 
often explode with a loud noise. While not 
common, many hundreds have been observed. 

The term "meteorite" has been restricted 
to those meteors which reach the surface of 
the earth, burying themselves in the ground. 
The following interesting description of a 
meteor that exploded in the air is given by 
Sir Robert Ball, of the University of Cam- 
bridge, England: 



"the runaways or the sky 167 

"There was a celebrated instance in 
America on the twenty-first of December, 
1876, which will give an idea of one of these 
objects possessing exceptional magnificence. 
It began in Kansas about seventy-five miles 
high, and thence it flew for a thousand miles 
at a speed of ten or fifteen miles a second, 
until it disappeared somewhere near Lake 
Ontario. 

"Over a certain region between Chicago and 
St. Louis, the great ball of fire burst into a 
number of pieces, and formed a cluster of 
glowing stars that seemed to chase each other 
over the sky. This cluster must have been 
about forty miles long and five miles wide; 
and when the explosion occurred, a most ter- 
rific noise was produced, so loud that many 
thought it was an earthquake. A remark- 
able circumstance illustrates the tremendous 
height at which this explosion occurred. The 
meteor had burst into pieces, the display was 
all over, and was beginning to be forgotten, 
and yet nothing had been heard. It was not 
until a quarter of an hour after the explo- 
sion had been seen that a fearful crash was 
heard at Bloomington. The explosion ac- 
tually occurred one hundred and eighty miles 



168 IN STAKLAND 

from the spot, and as sound takes five seconds 
to travel a mile, the noise required a quarter 
of an hour for its journey. What a tremen- 
dous noise it must have been!" 

Anciently meteors were supposed to be 
generated in the air by inflammable gases, 
and were omens of evil. It was the brilliant 
shower of November 13, 1833, that led to 
the systematic and earnest study of meteors, 
which study has resulted in proving "then* 
to be small planetary bodies, practically in- 
finite in numbers and illimitable in the extent 
and variety of their orbits." 

The total number of meteors entering our 
atmosphere in a single day, meteors that 
would be visible to the naked eye in the ab- 
sense of sunlight, moonlight, and clouds, as- 
tronomers compute to be at least ten million, 
"filling the space of the solar system as the 
air of a summer evening is filled with hum- 
ming insects." This seems a surprisingly 
large number; for as single observers, we 
rarely see any great number during any one 
evening. But this is not all; we are further 
told that to this number we should add those 
visible only through the telescope, which 
would increase the number manvfold. 



"the runaways of the sky" 169 

Meteors make their appearance in our at- 
mosphere at heights averaging from eighty 
to forty miles, though they sometimes are 
first seen at a greater height than eighty 
miles, and sometimes descend below forty 
miles. Their velocity can be computed from 
the length of their course and the duration 
of their flight; and this is found to vary from 
seven to seventy miles a second, those of the 
wonderful shower of November 13, 1833, 
having a velocity of about forty-four miles 
a second. Professor Charles Young, one- 
time professor of astronomy at Princeton 
University, pronounced this meteoric shower 
the most remarkable that has ever occurred, 
"the sky being as full of meteors as it is of 
snowflakes in time of storm." 

Like comets, meteors have been found to 
travel in closed orbits about the sun. Some- 
times they are distributed along the whole 
orbit; and sometimes they move in swarms, 
millions of miles long and a hundred thou- 
sand miles wide. When the earth comes to 
the place in its orbit intersected by the path 
of one of these swarms, and the swarm is 
there encountered, we have a meteoric shower. 
This is true of the November Leonids, which 



170 IN STARLAND 

are said to come from a shoal two billion 
miles long. This shoal completes a circuit 
around the sun about every thirty-three and 
a third years. Of this shower, Professor 
Olmsted, of Yale College, says, "Those who 
were so fortunate as to witness the exhibition 
of shooting stars on the morning of Novem- 
ber 13, 1833, probably saw the greatest dis- 
play of celestial fireworks that has ever been 
since the creation of the world." 

The fact that the shower of 1833 was pre- 
dicted by Bible writers centuries before it 
occurred, and centuries before man had any 
real knowledge of falling stars, precludes 
chance, and shows clearly that the Author 
of the Bible, the Creator of the heavens and 
the earth, understands the nature and times 
of the heavenly bodies, and the laws by which 
they are directed. 

Most of our large museums have handsome 
specimens of meteorites that have fallen in 
various parts of the earth. The New York 
City American Museum of Natural History 
has the largest mass known. It was brought 
by Admiral Peary from Greenland, and 
weighs ninety tons. The sacred black stone 
of the Caaba, in Mecca, is no doubt a mete- 



"the runaways of the sky" 171 

orite. A stone weighing fourteen hundred 
pounds, and which fell in Arizona, is in the 
National Museum at Washington, D. C. One 
that fell near Buenos Aires was seven and 
a half feet long, and weighed thirty-three 
thousand pounds. The dust from the burned- 
out meteors has been found on Alpine snows, 
in the depths of the sea, and in other places 
far from the habitations of men. 

One of the latest theories man has devised 
for the origin of the earth, and one growing 
in favor with geologists, is that it was made 
by the in-fall of meteoric matter. At the 
rate at which this matter falls to the earth 
at present, one billion years would be re- 
quired to accumulate a layer one inch thick 
over the earth's surface. Does it not seem 
foolish for so-called wise men to give cre- 
dence to such a slow, laborious, and uncertain 
process, rather than accept the happy solu- 
tion given to the problem by the Creator 
Himself? Through the psalmist He says: 
"Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the 
inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 
For He spake, and it was done; He com- 
manded, and it stood fast." Psalm 33:8, 9. 



172 IN STARLAND 

Meteorites are of special interest because 
they give us a glimpse of actual matter out- 
side of our own terrestrial globe. While 
these stones contain no element unknown to 
man, they contain some compounds unfa- 
miliar to him. They all contain a peculiar 
variety of iron, which takes a beautiful polish. 
Our common iron, when at a high tempera- 
ture, has the property of absorbing gases, and 
holding them until reheated to a high degree. 
Meteoric iron possesses this same property. 
A lecture on meteors was once delivered in 
London, while the audience had the interest- 
ing experience of sitting under lights that 
were burning gas taken from a meteorite. 
Dust from diamonds found in meteoric stones 
was used at the World's Fair in Chicago, by 
the Tiffany firm, for polishing other dia- 
monds. 

Students of the heavens claim to find a 
real and close connection between comets and 
meteors, and that is, that meteors are disinte- 
grated, or broken up, comets; for certain 
swarms of meteors traverse the path of cer- 
tain comets, and the composition of mete- 
orites that have been picked up from the 
earth was found to be the same as that of 



"the runaways of the sky" 173 

certain comets that are counted as lost 
comets. But this may be only a coincidence. 

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT 

This is a hazy triangular light, best seen, 
in north temperate latitudes, projecting up 
from the horizon in the western sky after 
sunset from January to April, or in the 
eastern from September to November before 
sunrise. It is clearly visible in the tropics 
throughout the year, and is said to be bright 
enough to cast a glow on the opposite sky. 

As a whole, it has the shape of a double 
convex lens, and is thought to be produced 
by myriads of meteoric bodies revolving 
about the sun, forming a sheet somewhat like 
the rings of Saturn. 

THE AURORAS 

If you have seen a display of the "northern 
lights," you have seen one of the most fasci- 
nating phenomena of the heavens. Auroral 
displays are regarded as electrical phe- 
nomena, centering about the magnetic poles 
of the earth. The north magnetic pole, being 
located near Hudson's Bay and twelve hun- 
dred miles from the geographic pole, is nearer 
the Western Hemisphere than the Eastern; 



174 IN STARLAND 

so the aurora borealis, or northern light, is 
more frequently observed in the New World 
than in the Old. 

The displays that center about the south 
magnetic pole are called aurora australis, or 
southern lights, "aurora" meaning light, and 
"australis" southern. 

Auroral displays at their best are inde- 
scribably beautiful and spectacular. Their 
delicately tinted light sometimes fills the 
heavens, taking the form of immense folded 
curtains, arches, streamers, and feathery 
flames, which are continually changing in 
form and color, sometimes of a pearly light, 
then of red, green, pale blue, purple, or gray, 
or perhaps all commingling in a harmonious 
whole. 



X 

"THE JEWELS OF THE SKY" 

"And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look 
now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to 
number them." Genesis 15: 5. 

"He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them 
all by their names." Psalm 147: 4. 

"One star differeth from another star in glory." 1 Co- 
rinthians 15: 41. 

A STAR is a self-luminous body in space; 
other heavenly bodies, as planets, shine 
by reflected light. At times, the celestial sky 
seems filled with twinkling orbs; but even 
under the most favorable circumstances, an 
observer can actually count only two thou- 
sand or twenty-five hundred visible at any 
one time. If he could see the entire celestial 
sphere as w r ell as he sees that just overhead, 
he might perhaps discern six thousand stars. 
Notwithstanding this fact, the stars are in- 
numerable. When the telescope is brought 
into service, the observer soon finds that the 
number seen with the naked eye hardly makes 
a beginning at the celestial count, for that 
instrument reveals thousands where one can 
be seen with the naked eye. Then after the 
power of the telescope is exhausted, the 

(175) 

12 



176 IN STARLAND 

camera will photograph thousands that are 
undetected by the telescope alone. Besides 
the single glittering points that fill the sky, 
millions upon millions of small stars closely 
crowded together, along with larger stars and 
star clusters, are compacted in the Milky 
Way, that "faint, mysterious river of light 
which encircles the heavens." A hundred 
million does not compass the starry host of 
our sidereal system. 

Besides these, there are several hundred 
thousand of the spiral nebulae at an appalling 
distance from us. These are thought by some 
to be other universes, consisting of stars, star 
clusters, and nebulse. 

Yet, with all these millions, if not billions, 
of stars, there is no lack of room in the celes- 
tial sphere; for astronomers have^ found no 
star within twenty-five trillion miles of us. 
The immensity of this starless space is better 
appreciated when we consider that "the earth 
is to this space as a particle one twentieth of 
an inch in diameter is to the whole world." 
It is further claimed that the average distance 
between the stars is estimated to be three and 
five tenths sidereal units, or more than six 
hundred trillion miles, one sidereal unit of 




►J 

p 

H 

S 



178 IN STARLAND 

space being two hundred thousand times our 
distance from the sun. 

Think then of the extent of the universe 
that harbors no less than one hundred million 
stars! Surely we exclaim with Richter's 
angel: "End there is none of the universe 
of God!" 

Each of the stars is supposed to be the 
center of a magnificent solar system, many 
of which systems far transcend in magnitude 
and importance our own. From Neptune 
as an observatory, the stars would appear 
but little if any brighter, since two billion, 
seven hundred and ninety-two million miles, 
the distance of Neptune from our sun, is of 
small moment when compared with stellar 
distances; for the nearest of the stars is esti- 
mated to be at least twenty-five trillions of 
miles distant. From this star, Alpha Cen- 
tauri, our sun would appear about as the 
North Star does to us, and none of its worlds 
or their satellites could be seen. If ten feet 
were taken to represent the distance of Nep- 
tune from the sun, then eighty-nine thousand, 
five hundred and forty-five feet, or nearly 
seventeen miles, would represent the distance 
of Alpha Centauri from us. 



"the jewels of the sky" 179 

The brightest stars have special names; but 
astronomers identify the stars of a constella- 
tion by the Greek letters of the alphabet, 
according to their order of position or degree 
of brightness, the brightest star being known 
as Alpha, the first letter; the second brightest 
as Beta, the second letter; and the third, 
Gamma; and so on down the alphabet. The 
name of the constellation is also added, as 
Alpha Orionis, the astronomer's name for 
Betelgeuse (bet-el-guz), the brightest star of 
Orion. Where there are a large number of 
stars in a constellation, Roman letters and 
Arabic numerals are called into service, as 
61 Cygni, of the constellation Cygnus. More 
than a million stars have been catalogued, 
that is, named, numbered, and definitely 
located. 

"The stars and all the flowers that sleep below them 
Are his who learns to name them and to know them." 

DISTANCE OF THE STARS FROM US 

Because of their great distance, we never 
see the real surface of the stars, but see only 
the light sent out from them years before. 
At the incomprehensible speed with which 
light travels, one hundred and eighty-six 




Andromeda Nebula 



(180) 



"the jewels of the sky" . 181 

thousand, three hundred miles a second, it is 
estimated that centuries and even millenniums 
are required for the light from some of the 
stars to reach us. If a star is one light year 
distant from us, it is 5,881,807,810,620 miles 
distant. This immense distance, then, is the 
measuring rod, the "yardstick," for measuring 
stellar distances; but there is no star even 
this near to us. According to this unit of 
measurement, four and a third years are re- 
quired for the light of Alpha Centauri, the 
very nearest star, to reach the earth; forty- 
seven years for the light of Polaris, the North 
Star; more than nine years for the light of 
Sirius; three hundred and thirty years for 
that of Rigel; one hundred and sixty years 
for that of Arcturus; and three hundred and 
seventy for that of Antares. Some portions 
of the Milky Way are computed to be one 
hundred thousand light years from us, and 
the nebulas of Andromeda six hundred thou- 
sand light years distant, while other nebulae 
are placed at still greater distances. What 
do these figures mean? Professor David 
Todd, of the Amherst Observatory, in an 
attempt to help us comprehend their meaning, 
savs : 



182 IN STARLAND 

"While one is taking two ordinary steps, 
at an average walking pace, light will travel 
a distance equal to eight times round the 
world, nearly two hundred thousand miles. 
Now, to realize in some sense the enormous 
distance of the nearest fixed star from our 
earth, open a Webster's International Dic- 
tionary, which contains over two thousand 
pages of three columns each, or the equiva- 
lent. Begin to read as rapidly as you can, 
and imagine a ray of light to have just left 
the nearest fixed star at the instant you begin. 
By the time you have finished a single page, 
the star's light will have sped onward toward 
the earth no less than one hundred million 
miles. Imagine that you could keep right on 
reading, tirelessly and without ceasing, day 
and night, just as light itself travels — how 
many pages would you have read when the 
ray of light from Alpha Centauri, the nearest 
fixed star, had reached the earth? You would 
have read it completely through, — not once, 
or twice, but nearly a hundred times. So 
enormously distant is this nearest of the stars 
that, if it were blotted out of existence this 
present moment, it would continue to shine 
in its accustomed place for more than four 



"the jewels of the sky" 183 

years to come. And other stars whose dis- 
tances have been measured are a hundredfold 
more remote." 

Surely we exclaim with Eliphaz of old, 
"Behold the height of the stars, how high 
they are!" Job 22:12. 

HOW DISTANCE OF STARS IS DETERMINED 

Astronomers determine the approximate 
distance of the stars from us by obtaining 
their parallax. Hold your index finger about 
one foot from your eye. Close one eye, and 
notice where the finger, as seen by the other 
eye, registers itself on the wall you face. 
Without changing the position of the finger, 
look at it with the other eye. The difference 
in the apparent positions of the finger as seen 
with the two eyes, is its angle of parallax. 
The farther you hold the finger from you, 
the less the parallax. By locating a star 
when looking at it on a given day, then six 
months later, when the earth is in the exact 
opposite part of the orbit, making a distance 
of one hundred and eighty-six million miles 
between the two positions, the star's parallax 
is obtained. From this parallax and the one 
hundred and eighty-six million miles, astrono- 



184 IN STARLAND 

mers, by the use of trigonometry, can de- 
termine the distance of the star. It was in 
1838 that the parallax of a star was first 
determined; and up to 1917, the parallax of 
less than three hundred stars had been found, 
most of these orbs being too far away to 
show parallax. But in 1917, a new method 
of determining parallax was discovered at 
the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Wonderful 
results have been achieved by this method, so 
that now the approximate parallax, at least, 
of about one thousand stars is known. 

MOTION OF THE "FIXED STARS" 

The term "fixed stars" is common; but this 
term is allowable only as one refers to the 
fact that the stars apparently maintain from 
year to year the same relative positions. 
However, they are far from stationary, as 
they revolve around their centers of gravity 
at speeds sometimes far exceeding those of 
the planets of our system, and far more 
swiftly than the swiftest cannon ball, which 
is but little Jess than half a mile a second. 
The average star speed is given by Kapteyn 
as twenty-six miles a second, though some 
stars have a velocitv of more than two hun- 



"the jewels of the sky" 185 

dred miles a second. Yet, at the average 
speed of twenty-six miles a second, many 
thousands of years would be required for & 
star to cover one sidereal unit of space. 

The Lord said to Job, "Canst thou guide 
Arcturus with his sons?" Astronomers have 
ascertained that this giant of the sky, at least 
a million times larger than our own sun, flies 
through space with its retinue of worlds, or 
"sons," at the rate of more than nine hun- 
dred thousand miles an hour, or at nearly 
nine times the speed of Mercury, or fourteen 
times that of the earth. Surely only Om- 
nipotent power can "guide Arcturus with his 
sons" on their mad rush through space. 

Our own sun, 'with its coterie of worlds 
keeping clpse to it, is said to sweep onward 
through space at the rate of four hundred 
million miles a year. Its course is directed 
toward a point in Hercules. 

Again, the Lord asks Job, "Canst thou 
. . . loose the bands of Orion?" By the 
revolution of the stars and their consequent 
change of position, the belt or "bands of 
Orion" may ultimately glide apart or loosen; 
but man is powerless to make the change. 



186 IN STARLAND 

In speaking of this mysterious and inter- 
esting triplet, Hugh McMillan says: 

"Can man, whose breath is in his nostrils, 
and who is crushed before the moth, unclasp 
that brilliant starry bracelet which God's own 
hand has fastened on the dusky arm of night? 
Can man separate these stars from one an- 
other, or alter their relative positions in the 
smallest degree? What is it that controls all 
their movements, and keeps them united to- 
gether in their peculiar form? It is the force 
of gravitation, which is not a mere mechanical 
agency, unoriginated and uncontrolled, but 
the delegated power of the Almighty — the 
will of Him who has the keys of the universe, 
and 'shutteth, and no man openeth; and 
openeth, and no man shutteth.' How sublime 
the thought, that the same Power which binds 
the starry bands of Orion, keeps together 
the particles of the common stone by the 
wayside, — that those mighty masses are con- 
trolled by the same almighty influence, which 
regulates the falling of the snowflake and the 
gentle breath of summer, that directs the 
motions of the minutest animalcule, and 
weaves the attenuated line of the gossamer!" 



"the jewels of the sky" 187 

While from year to year the great sidereal 
system presents an unchanged appearance to 
the casual observer, the close student of the 
sky notes significant changes; but these are 
so small in most cases that they are recorded 
in terms of centuries instead of years. For 
example, Halley found, in 1718, that Arc- 
turus had moved toward the south nearly a 
whole degree since the time of Hipparchus, 
who lived from 180-110 B. c, and Sirius about 
half as much. A star's change of position 
in the sky, or "its drift with respect to a fixed 
system of reference lines," is known as its 
proper motion, but this is not the star's real 
motion. 

Halley was the first person to detect this 
annual drift of the stars. A star may be 
moving directly toward or away from the 
earth, at great speed, yet it will show no 
proper motion; it will appear to be fixed 
on the celestial sphere. But a star moving 
across our view will reveal a proper motion, 
dependent upon its velocity, or real motion, 
and its distance from us. The greater the 
distance of a star, other things not being 
considered, the less its proper motion. The 
brightest stars all reveal a proper motion; 



188 IN STARLAND 

and on an average, their proper motion is 
larger than that of the faint stars. However, 
the star with the very largest proper motion 
that had been observed up to 1898 is 1830 
Groombridge, a star of the eighth magnitude. 
It has an annual drift of seven seconds of 
arc (a second of arc being Heoo of a degree), 
so was called the "runaway" star. At this 
rate, two hundred and seventy years, it is 
estimated, would be required for it to change 
its apparent position by a space equal to the 
apparent diameter of the moon, or a little 
more than half a degree. The star that 
superseded 1830 Groombridge in 1898 has a 
proper motion of eight and seven tenths 
seconds annually. 

There are said to be less than two hun- 
dred stars that have a proper motion of as 
much as one second of arc a year. This 
distance would be approximately one eighteen 
thousandth of the space between the Pointers, 
the space betw r een these two stars of the 
Large Dipper being about five degrees. As- 
tronomers claim that stars with a proper 
motion of five seconds of arc a century are 
quite uniformly scattered over the sky, while 
those with a less proper motion than five 



"the jewels or the sky" 189 

seconds a century cluster in the region of the 
Milky Way. 

SIZE OF THE STARS 

The immense distance of most of the stars 
from the earth precludes astronomers from 
ascertaining their size; but there are a few 
that have yielded interesting returns. Algol, 
in the constellation Perseus, is thought to 
have a diameter of more than a million miles; 
and it has a companion, or dark body, about 
the size of our sun, revolving about it at a 
distance of three million and five hundred 
thousand miles. Arcturus is estimated to 
have a diameter of eighty-six million miles, 
about one hundred times that of our own 
sun. Just about the close of 1920, on De- 
cember 13, the diameter of Betelgeuse, the 
reddish first magnitude star in Orion, was 
obtained by Professor Michelson, of Chicago 
University, and Professor Pease, of the Mt. 
Wilson Observatory. By use of the interfer- 
ometer in connection with the high-powered 
telescope, the angular diameter of Betelgeuse 
was approximately determined. This feat is 
said to correspond to ascertaining the ap- 
parent angular diameter of a sphere one foot 
in diameter and eight hundred and fifty miles 



190 



IN STARLAND 



distant; and therefore we need not wonder 
that astronomers are willing to admit that 
the determined result is not without probable 
error, possibly a fifty per cent error. But 
even then, Betelgeuse would exceed all other 
stars or planets that had been measured up 




Professor Albert A. Michelson 

to that time, and would be large enough to 
fill the orbit of Mars. The determination of 
the diameter of Betelgeuse marked one of 
the greatest of astronomical achievements. 
This angular diameter was found to be forty- 
six thousandths of a second of arc. This 
was the angle formed between two rays of 



THE JEWELS OF THE SKY 



191 



oRgUL^fe 



light starting from opposite sides of the great 
star and coming together in the telescope. 
With this angle, the rays would be so "nearly 
parallel that they would not show a spread 
of a hair's breadth in two hundred and fifty 
yards, and we should have to travel back 
along the rays for a distance of over seventy 
miles before we should 
reach a separation of 
one inch. Of course, 
the farther we trace 
these rays, the greater 
the separation, until u v 
eventually we arrive at Wo x 
their source, where, of 
course, their separation 
equals the diameter of the star. Hence if we 
know the distance of the star from our tele- 
scope, we can determine the diameter." 

The unit of measurement employed in this 
determination was half a wave length of 
light. The average length of a wave of light 
is two one-hundred-thousandths of an inch. 
One writer, in an effort to give a concrete 
conception of this unit, says that a very 
fine human hair measures perhaps two one- 
thousandths of an inch in thickness; if we 




13 



192 IN STARLAND 

were to split that hair into one hundred 
slivers, each sliver would equal the length of 
a light wave. One half of this equals the 
unit of measurement employed in finding the 
diameter of Betelgeuse. This was therefore 
one one-hundredth x>f half a hair's breadth. 

The distance of Betelgeuse is reckoned as 
about two hundred light years, or more than 
a quadrillion miles from us. The working out 
of this problem gives Betelgeuse a diameter 
of nearly three hundred million miles. If 
the distance of Betelgeuse is not exact, the 
diameter as given is not altogether correct. 

Betelgeuse was found to have a parallax 
of sixteen thousandths of a second, which 
would give it a diameter of two hundred and 
seventy-three million miles. If this parallax 
is too large by half, then the diameter of the 
star is computed to be more than five hundred 
million miles. If the parallax is twenty-four 
thousandths of a second, the diameter equals 
one hundred and eighty-two million miles. 
Betelgeuse would be no pigmy sun, even if 
the least of these determinations should prove 
to be the one most nearly correct. 

Less than a year after the announcement , 
of Professor Pease concerning the diameter 



"the jewels or the sky" 193 

of Betelgeuse, he determined the diameter of 
Antares, the reddish first magnitude star in 
the constellation Scorpio. Its apparent di- 
ameter, obtained with the Michelson inter- 
ferometer, is thirty-nine thousandths of a 
second of arc, a little less than that of Betel- 
geuse. Since Antares is given as three hun- 
dred and seventy light years distant from 
us, its diameter is computed to be four hun- 
dred and twentv million miles, more than 
twice that of the earth's orbit. 

STARS CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO BRIGHTNESS 

Early astronomers noted the varying 
brightness of stars, and arbitrarily classified 
them according to their brightness. An at- 
tempt w r as later made to establish a definite 
ratio between the magnitudes, making those 
of the first magnitude about two and one half 
times as bright as those of the second, and 
similarly those of the second about two , and 
one half times those of the third, and so on 
up to and beyond the fifteenth magnitude. 
Few can see, with the unaided eye, stars 
fainter than those of the sixth magnitude. 
The approximate ratio of a first magnitude 
star to one of the twentieth magnitude is as 
thirty-seven million to One. 



194 IN STARLAND 

Even this classification was not sufficiently 
accurate for the present-day astronomer; so 
he makes use of fractions, and of zero and 
negative magnitudes. The invention of the 
photometer enabled astronomers to measure 
the light accurately, and therefore permitted 
a more exact classification. 

The need of a more scientific classification 
is readily apparent. Pollux and Regulus are 
stars of the first magnitude; but there are 
first magnitude stars two and a half times as 
bright as these, so they are said to be of 
"zero" magnitude. Capella and Rigel are 
examples of this magnitude. But there are 
stars much brighter than any of the zero 
magnitude. Sirius, one of these, is thirteen 
times as bright as Regulus, a first magnitude 
star, and several times brighter than Capella, 
a "zero" star. So the magnitude of Sirius is 
said to be negative; that is, it surpasses the 
zero brightness. From Sirius, which is fifty- 
one trillion miles from us, our sun would ap- 
pear to be only a third magnitude star; still 
the light of six billion stars like Sirius would 
be required to give us the brilliancy of a 
bright June day. The average distance of a 
first magnitude star, from us is given as one 



i( 



THE JEWELS OF THE SKY" 195 

hundred and sixty quadrillion miles, while a 
star of the eighth magnitude is estimated to 
be more than twenty times as far away. 
There follows a list of our twenty brightest 
stars, with their magnitudes as given in "De- 
scriptive Astronomy," by Professor Moulton: 

Sirius (sir'i-us) • . . — 1.6 

Canopus (ka-no'pus) — 0.9 

Alpha Centauri (al'fa sen-tau'ri) .... 0.1 

Vega (ve'ga) 0.1 

Capella (ka-pel'a) 0.2 

Arcturus (ark-tu'rus) 0.2 

Rigel (ri'jel) 0.3 

Procyon (pro'si-on) 0.5 

Achernar (a'ker-nar) 0.6 

Beta Centauri (be'ta sen-tau'ri) .... 0.9 

Altair (al-ta/ir) 0.9 

Betelgeuse (bet-el-guz') 0.9 

Alpha Crucis (al'fa cru'sis) 1.1 

Aldebaran (al-deb'a-ran) 1.1 

Spica (spi'ka) 1.2 

Pollux (pol'uks) 1.2 

Antares (an-ta'rez) 1.2 

Fomalhaut (fo'mal-hawt) 1.3 

Deneb (den'eb) 1.3 

Eegulus (reg'u-lus) 1.3 

VARIABLE STARS 

There are stars which do not always mani- 
fest the same degree of brightness ; some fluc- 
tuate regularly and some irregularly. Algol, 
in Perseus, is a variable star. For about two 
and a half days, it is a second magnitude star, 
when it suddenly decreases, and in three and 



196 IN STARLAND 

a half hours becomes a fourth magnitude star. 
It then rekindles and becomes as bright as 
ever. The fluctuations of Mira, in the con- 
stellation Cetus, are equally interesting. It 
is of the second magnitude for about fifteen 
days, then for three months it decreases in 
brilliancy until it becomes invisible to the 
naked eye. This period of darkness lasts five 
months, when it gradually brightens until it 
regains its usual brilliancy. Mira's fluctua- 
tions were observed as early as the sixteenth 
century. 

More than four thousand variables are 
known. The reason for this change in bright- 
ness is not fully understood ; but it is thought 
to be due, in a certain type of variables at 
least, to a dark body, a planet perhaps, re- 
volving about the star, and thus in certain 
positions partially, if not altogether, cutting 
off the star's light. The periods of variables 
range from a few hours to more than a year, 
six hundred and ten days. There is a star in 
Cygnus, 65 Cygni, which represents a triple 
system of great interest, with a period of 
three hours and twenty-five minutes, the 
shortest known period. The diameter of the 



THE JEWELS OF THE SKY 197 

brightest star of the trio is computed to be 
over five million miles. 

Stars differ not only in brightness, but in 
the color of the light they emit, "every tint 
that blooms in the flowers of summer flaming 
out in the sky at night." 

Antares, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, and Arc- 
turus shine with a reddish light. There are 
telescopic stars which give forth a blood-red 
light. Vega is bluish, as are many of those in 
the Milky Way. Sirius and Procyon are 
white, while Capella shines with a yellowish 
or creamy white light. It is in the double or 
multiple stars that the greatest display of 
color is seen. 

DOUBLE OR MULTIPLE STARS 

A double or multiple star appears as a 
single star until separated into two or more 
by the telescope. Some of the double or 
multiple stars are only optically so; that is v 
they seem to be near each other, but are not. 
They lie in the same straight line from us, 
but may be at immense distances from each 
other and bear no special relation to each 
other. But practically all of the more than 
twenty thousand double and multiple stars 



198 IN STARLAND 

known are physically related; that is, they 
have a common center of gravity around 
which they revolve, and thus appear to re- 
volve around each other, as Tennyson says: 

"Those double stars 
Whereof the one more bright 
Is circled by the other." 

Professor W. W. Campbell, of the Lick 
Observatory, estimates that one out of every 
four stars is revealed to be a binary by the 
spectroscope. If this is even approximately 
true, the thousands of known doubles or mul- 
tiples are only a hint of the real number that 
exist. 

The members of such systems are often of 
different colors, a green star having perhaps 
a blood-red companion, an orange star a blue 
companion, while a yellow star may have a 
purple one associated with it. A triple star 
in Andromeda consists of an orange-red sun 
and two of an emerald green color. 

Rigel, in Orion, is a noted double star. So 
also is Polaris, one component being a yellow- 
ish star a little below second magnitude, and 
the other a white just below the ninth magni- 
tude. Capella and Sirius are both double 
stars. The companion of Sirius is a star of 



"the jewels or the sky" 199 

the tenth magnitude and revolves around 
Sirius in about fifty years. This companion 
made its presence known by its pull on Sirius, 
sixteen years before it was seen through a 
telescope. 

NEBULAE 

The word "nebula" comes from the Latin 
word for cloud. The dictionary defines a 
nebula as "a faint, cloudlike, self-luminous 
mass of attenuated matter situated far out- 
side of the solar system;" but astronomi- 
cally not all nebulas are now considered self- 
luminous. In 1771, an astronomer listed one 
hundred and three of these cloud masses. 
Sir William Herschel increased the number 
to over twenty-five hundred; and his son 
Sir John Herschel catalogued and described 
nearly four thousand nebulas. Other astrono- 
mers all the way along have added to this 
number, until it is asserted that not less than 
a half million nebulas are within the power 
of the Lick telescope. 

These are of various shapes and sizes, and 
travel at varying velocities, some having a 
velocity of more than two hundred miles 
a second. According to some authorities, 
nebulas are classified as extended, spiral, and 



200 IN STARLAND 

planetary. The spiral are numbered by the 
hundred thousand, and are far more numer- 
ous than either of the others. They are re- 
garded as the largest and most mysterious 
class of objects in the celestial sphere, though 
some of the planetary nebulae are said to 
occupy a space many times the size of s our 
solar system. The minimum distance of the 
spiral nebulae from us is estimated to be the ap- 
palling distance of one million light years; or 
1,000,000 x 186,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 miles. 
The study of the spiral nebulae, which are 
called "island universes," has greatly enlarged 
the astronomer's conception of the extent of 
space. They are thought by some astrono- 
mers to be outside of our immense sidereal or 
starry system, and are believed to represent 
new stellar universes, perhaps much exceed- 
ing our own in extent and interest. 

Among the most interesting nebulae of 
our stellar system are the Great Nebula of 
Orion, the Spiral Nebula of Canes Ve- 
natici, the Annular Nebula of Lyra, and the 
Nebula of Andromeda. The Owl Nebula 
is in the Great Bear, about midway between 
the Pointers. 



"the jewels of the sky" 201 

In brilliancy and variety of detail, the 
nebula of Orion exceeds all others known to 
astronomers. This, you will recall, is the 
nebula surrounding the middle star of the 
sword of Orion, which is a multiple star with 
four of its stars arranged in the form of a 
trapezium. 




The Great Nebula of Orion 



202 IN STARLAND 

While the Dutch astronomer Huygens dis- 
covered this nebula in 1656, and it has since 
been studied through our greatest telescopes, 
yet not until it traced its own story in a flood 
of glorious light upon the photographic plate 
did astronomers altogether appreciate this 
wonderful phenomenon. They now observe 
that "the whole constellation of Orion is 
enmeshed with mysterious loops and laces of 
nebulous cloud." Sir John Herschel says, "It 
is remarkable, however, that within the area 
of the trapezium no nebula exists," neither is 
there sun, planet, or satellite. 

Surrounding the trapezium is the brightest 
part of the nebula. Huygens said that so 
bright was this nebula, that in contrast the 
heavens about seemed "quite black, the effect 
being that of an opening in the sky, through 
which a brighter region was visible." 

In ordinary telescopes, the nebula seems to 
be a flat surface; but photographs reveal the 
central region of the space within the quadri- 
lateral to be the mouth of a colossal cave — 
"the open space of Orion." This yawning 
abyss is thought to have a diameter of sixteen 
trillion and seven hundred fifty billion miles. 
If so, since the diameter of the orbit of the 



"the jewels of the sky" 203 

earth "is one hundred and eighty-six million 
miles, ninety thousand of these orbits, side by 
side, forming one straight line of rings, could 
enter the appalling chasm." The diameter 
of the orbit of Neptune is five billion, five 
hundred and eighty- four million miles ; but we 
are assured that three thousand circles of this 
diameter placed side by side, "could pass into 
the open space in Orion and not touch its 
starry lighted sides." And its depth may 
greatly exceed its width. 

Finite mind cannot grasp the immensity of 
these figures; yet this is only a very small 
part of the universe of God. Surely we can 
say with another: "Lo, these are only the 
outlying borders of His works. What a 
whisper of a word we hear of Him! The 
thunder of His power who can comprehend?" 

In the year 1848, there were shown to Mrs. 
E. G. White some of the events connected 
with the Saviour's return to earth. In re- 
counting these, she wrote: 

"Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed 
against each other. The atmosphere parted 
and rolled back. Then we could look up 
through the open space in Orion, whence 



204 IN STARLAKD 

came the voice of God. The holy city will 
come down through that open space." 

In view, then, of the fact that the voice 
of God sounds forth through this space, and 
through it the city of God comes down to 
earth, may it not be that this open space is 
but the great corridor to the throne of God, 
and that beyond it are the everlasting gates 
that were lifted up to receive the King of 
Glory, and that will again open before Him 
as He comes to receive His own? 



XI 

THE CONSTELLATIONS 

"The sad and solemn night 

Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires; 
The glorious host of light 

Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires; 
All through her silent watches, gliding slow, 
Her constellations come, and climb the 
heavens, and go." 

— William Cullen Bryant. 

THE constellations are largely fanciful 
groups of stars, conceived and named by 
the ancients. The less fantastic groups, such 
as the two dippers, are noted by all observers. 
For convenience in the study of the stars, the 
old grouping is retained. 

The zodiac is a belt in the celestial sphere 
which extends eight degrees on each side of 
the ecliptic. It encircles the sky "like the 
colored band on a croquet ball." Within this 
belt move the sun, the moon, and all the 
planets. It is divided into twelve equal di- 
visions called signs. The signs of the zodiac, 
beginning with the vernal equinox, are : Aries, 
Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, 
Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, 
Pisces. The objects represented by these in 
their order are: the ram, bull, twins, crab, 

(205) 



206 



IN STARLAND 



lion, virgin, scales, scorpion, archer, goat, 
water bearer, and fishes. The signs are rep- 
resented by appropriate symbols. In the en- 
trance lobby of the Congressional Library at 



^ tgOH ^Slfr w 




MAGNITUDES 
• • • • • 
12 5 4-5 



a °0-THERN HO*** 

Constellations in the Spring Sky — February, March, April 

Month 1st 15th 



February 12 Midn. 

March 10 P. M. 

April 8 P. M. 



.11 P. M. 
. 9 P. M. 
. 7 P. M. 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 



207 



Washington, D. C, the symbols for these 
signs are inlaid in the floor. 

The signs bear the names of the constel- 
lations with which they coincided when first 



*° 



„ qOH ku^ 



£^r 



S^> 




Constellations in the Summer Sky — May, June, July 

Month 1st 1 5th 

May 12 Midn 11 P. M. 

June 10 P. M 9 P. M. 

July 8 P. M. 



14 



208 



IN STAIILAND 



named, the sign Aries being in the con- 
stellation Aries, Pisces in Pisces, and so on 
through the list. The equinoctial points have 



^•r ao« Kttgj f^ 




Constellations in the Autumn Sky — August, September, 



October 

Month 1st. 



.15th 



August 12 Midn 11 P. M. 

September 10 P. M 9 P. M. 

October 8 P. M 7 P. M. 

November 6 P. M 5 P. M. 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 



209 



annually retrograded, or slipped back, on the 
ecliptic about fifty seconds; so that now the 
sign Aries is in the constellation Pisces, and 



^oj^3^1I^^r 




Constellations in the Winter Sky — November, December, 



January 

Month 1st. . . 



.15th 



November 12 Midn. 

December 10 P. M. 

January 8 P. M. 

February 6 P. M. 



.11 P. M. 
. 9 P. M. 
. 7 P. M. 
. 5 P. M. 



210 IN STARLAND 

Pisces in Aquarius. The following stanza al- 
ludes to this precession of the equinoxes, and 
traces the sun in its path through the zodiac: 

"This is the way the spring begins: 
First Aries, then Taurus, then the Heavenly Twins. 
The first summer sign is the one we call Cancer; 
The next two to Leo and Virgo will answer. 
Then autumn brings Libra and bright Scorpio, 
And next Sagittarius, with his strong bow. 
Capricornus then ushers the winter in, 
And near old Aquarius the year we begin, 
Pisces comes next, and then winter is done; 
And with Aries's approach, a new spring is begun. 
These are the signs; but bear this in mind: 
The sun lags in one constellation behind. 
When his place is Aries, we'll find him in Pisces; 

When in Taurus he should be, in Aries he stays. 
If Gemini's his place, and to find him our wish is, 

We must look back in Taurus to see his 
bright rays. 
And so through the year, whatever his place is, 
The bright group behind is the one that he graces." 

Recognition of the constellations of the 
same name as these signs, enables one to lo- 
cate the ecliptic at any time of year. From 
a few nights' observation, one may familiarize 
one's self with these constellations, and with 
the ecliptic and the equinoctial, the bases of 
important celestial measurements. 

One of the most interesting of the northern 
polar constellations, those which are always 
above the horizon in north temperate lati- 
tudes, is Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 211 

principal stars of this group form the Big 
Dipper. In England, the Big Dipper is 
known as Charles's Wain or the Plow. The 
two stars at the front of the bowl of the 
Dipper are called the "Pointers," because 
a line drawn through them and continued 
northward to about five times the distance 
between the two stars, or twenty-five degrees, 
passes very near the North Star. The pole- 
star, or Polaris, is at the end of the tail of 
the Small Bear, or Ursa Minor. A group of 
seven stars in this constellation forms the 
Little Dipper, the polestar marking the end 
of the handle. The star Zeta, or Mizar, at 
the bend of the handle of the Large Dipper, 
is double, being composed of a white star 
and a green one. 

Draco, the Dragon, is a long, twisting line 
of stars, stretching between the Large and 
the Small Dipper, nearly encircling the latter, 
and finally reaching out its head, a quadri- 
lateral group of stars, almost to the body of 
Hercules. 

"Here the vast Dragon twines 
Between the Bears and like a river winds." 

On the opposite side of the polestar from 
the Large Dipper, and at about the same 



212 IN STARLAND 

distance from the pole as the Dipper, is the 
constellation Cassiopeia (kas-i-o-pe'ya), the 
principal stars of which, six in number, form 
an inverted chair with a crooked back; or if 
the faint star of the front edge of the seat 
is omitted, a spread-out W appears. One 
can easily find this constellation on any clear 
night. The Greek legend represents Cassio- 
peia as a queen seated in her throne with 
King Cepheus at her right, Perseus, her son- 
in-law, on her left, and Andromeda, her 
daughter, above her. These are all names of 
constellations easily discerned, as one searches 
the northern sky. 

Perseus is a group of stars lying between 
Auriga and Pegasus, and very near to Cas- 
siopeia. The variable star Algol is in this 
constellation. 

Cepheus is on the opposite side of the pole 
from Ursa Major, and it has two bright stars 
that make almost as good "pointers" as the 
two in that constellation. They are nearer 
the pole and farther apart. 

A line drawn through the last two stars 
of the handle of the Great Dipper and pro- 
longed away from the pole passes near Arc- 
turus, at the point of the tail of a huge 



214 IN STARLAND 

kite-shaped figure, the constellation Bootes, 
the Bear Keeper. Close to Bootes is Corona, 
the Crown, a group of six stars arranged in 
a semicircle. 

Cygnus, the Swan, is not far from the 
head of Draco. The principal stars of Cyg- 
nus form a large cross, known as the North- 
ern Cross, the upright piece of which lies in 
the Milky Way. One of the small stars of 
this group, 61 Cygni, is the nearest to us 
of all the stars in the Northern Hemisphere, 
being only five hundred and fifty thousand 
times farther away from us than is our sun, 
or fifty-one trillion miles. Deneb is the last 
star in the upright piece of the Cross, above 
the arms. It forms a large triangle with 
Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila. 

"Yonder goes Cygnus, the Swan, flying southward, — 
Sign of the Cross, and of Christ unto me." 

— Smith. 

Andromeda, and Pegasus, the Winged 
Horse, are found by drawing a line from 
Polaris through Cassiopeia and prolonging it 
an equal distance beyond Cassiopeia. The 
three chief stars of Pegasus, together with 
Alpha Andromeda, form a large, rude square. 
Just beneath this square is the constellation 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 215 

Pisces. One of the fishes is marked by a six- 
sided polygon, south of one side of the square 
of Pegasus, and the other is opposite the 
adjoining side of the square, next to An- 
dromeda. The two fishes are tied together 
by a long double line of stars, rather faint 
but discernible. Pisces is an interesting con- 
stellation, from the fact that in it is the point 
where the sun crosses the celestial equator 
on its way north in the spring. This point 
is known as the vernal equinox, and is the 
celestial Greenwich, the point from which a 
star's right ascension is measured. It can 
be located by drawing a line from Polaris 
through Beta Cassiopeia, and on past Alphe- 
rat, the star in the square of Pegasus that is 
common to Andromeda, and continuing it to 
meet Pisces. Andromeda includes the row 
of bright stars extending from one corner of 
the square of Pegasus, with a small triangle 
near by. 

Lyra, the Harp, which contains the beauti- 
ful star Vega, is not far to the northeast of 
Bootes. To find the friendly twinkler, Vega, 
draw a line from the star at the junction of 
the bowl and the handle of the Dipper to 
Polaris, or the North Star. Then from Po- 



216 IN STAELAND 

laris draw a line at right angles to the first 
line nearly forty degrees in length on the 
same side of the Dipper from which the 
handle projects, and it will point out a small 
triangle with Vega at one of the angles. This 
is the most brilliant star in the northern 
heavens. It lies near the Milky Way. 

Not far from Vega, and just across the 
Milky Way, lies the constellation Aquila. 
Altair, the brilliant first magnitude star, is 
the middle star of a line of three stars. Al- 
tair is found to be approaching the earth at 
the rate of more than eight hundred million 
miles a year. 

Auriga, the Charioteer, may be found by 
drawing a line from Polaris at right angles 
to the line from the Pointers to the pole, and 
running in an opposite direction from the 
handle to the Dipper ;/or starting "at the star 
which marks the bottom of the Dipper on the 
handle side and running thence about half- 
way between the two Pointers, for a distance 
of about fifty degrees, or to the first bright 
star, you will reach Capella," the brightest 
star of Auriga, and also the second brightest 
of the northern heavens. The principal stars 
of Auriga are in the form of a large irregular 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 217 

five-sided figure. Capella marks one of the 
corners of the pentagon. At nine o'clock on 
a January night, you will be able to see this 
beautiful star almost overhead. Near Ca- 
pella, in a side of the pentagon, is a small 
triangle of three stars, called the Kids, which 
will aid in identifying Auriga. 

A line from Polaris through Cassiopeia and 
between Perseus and Andromeda, when pro- 
longed, pierces a small triangle, which marks 
the head of Aries, the Ram. You will want 
to become familiar with Aries, "the prince of 
the zodiac," as it will aid in locating the 
ecliptic. 

Taurus, the Bull, contains two interesting 
groups of stars. The V-shaped group in the 
bull's head is Hyades, and the bright red- 
dish star at one corner of the opening is 
AldebaraiL You will not regret heeding Mrs. 
Sigourney's suggestion: 

"Go forth at night, 
And talk with Aldebaran, where 

he flames 
In the cold forehead of the winter 

sky." 

In the fore shoulder of Taurus lies the 
beautiful cluster known as the Pleiades, or 
"the seven stars, glittering and quivering 




Nebulje in the Pleiades 



(218) 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 219 

with radiance in the amethystine ether like a 
breastplate of jewels — the Urim and Thum- 
mim of the Eternal." The telescope and the 
photographic plate have revealed more than 
seveij thousand stars in this group; but only 
six are clearly visible to the naked eye. Some 
persons, however, are able to see from ten to 
fourteen stars. William Cullen Bryant al- 
ludes to the Pleiades in the lines: 

"The group of sister stars which mothers love 
To show their wondering babes, the gentle seven. " 

A line drawn from the Pleiades through 
Aldebaran in Hyades and continued but a 
short distance cuts into 'Orion, the mighty 
hunter, the most magnificent constellation in 
the heavens, and easily discerned as one looks 
toward the south on a midwinter evening. 
Orion is marked by four bright stars forming 
a parallelogram. Since he is represented as 
facing Taurus, the Bull, Betelgeuse, a red 
star of the first magnitude, marks the right 
shoulder of the mighty hunter, and Bella- 
trix (be-la'triks) the left shoulder. Rigel, a 
bluish-white star of the first magnitude, 
marks the left foot, and Saiph the right knee. 
Near the center of the quadrilateral lie three 



220 IN STARLAND 

bright stars, which constitute the bands, or 
belt, of Orion. 

Extending southward from the belt is an 
irregular line of three stars, which marks the 
giant's sword. The middle one of this group 
is surrounded by a hazy, cloudlike mass 
known as the Great Nebula of Orion. The 
telescope reveals this star, Theta Orionis, to 
be a multiple star, the four principal stars 
being arranged in the form of an irregular 
quadrilateral, with two others near and still 
others scattered throughout the great nebu- 
lous cloud. Within this quadrilateral is the 
"open space" of Orion. 

"A single misty star, 
Which is the second in a line of stars 
That seem a sword beneath a belt of three, 
I never gazed upon it but I dreamt 
Of some vast charm concluded in that star 
To make fame nothing." 

— Tennyson. 

Just below Orion are four stars forming 
a beautiful figure called Lepus, the Hare; 
and just south of it is Columba, Noah's Dove. 

"Below Orion's feet the Hare 
Is chased eternally; behind him 
Sirius ever speeds as in pursuit." 

— Aratus. 

A line drawn through the belt of Orion and 
continued for a short distance passes through 




The Sword and Belt of Orion 

The belt is composed of the three second magnitude stars 
standing obliquely on the left. The three smaller stars be- 
low in a nearly vertical line form the sword. The center 
light of the sword is the nebula. 

(221) 



222 IN STARLAND 

Sir ius, the brightest star of the heavens. 
Sirius is known as the Dog Star, because it 
is in the constellation Canis Major, or Great 
Dog. You will want to know this brightest 
star in the sky, and one of our nearest stars; 
so to make sure you have Sirius, draw a line 
from Aldebaran in Hyades through Bellatrix 
in Orion, and extend it until it comes near to 
the first bright sparkler. This will be the 
Dog Star. It will be on the meridian, up 
about twenty degrees, in the southern sky, 
about nine o'clock in February. 

Sirius is best observed in the early evening 
during the winter months. On Thanksgiving 
night, he makes his debut above the eastern 
horizon about nine o'clock. He is one of the 
latest of a retinue of brilliant stars to make 
their appearance; Vega, Altair, Capella, Al- 
debaran, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Castor, Pollux, 
and Procyon, having preceded him. Month 
after month, he comes up a little earlier each 
succeeding day; so that by March and April, 
he is at his best, being high in the heavens 
in the early evening, though not more than 
one third of the distance to the zenith. 

"The fiery Sirius alters hue 
And bickers into red and emerald." 
— Tennyson. 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 223 

Just to the north and east of Sirius, and 
almost in a line with Betelgeuse in the right 
shoulder of Orion, is Canis Minor, the Little 
Dog. The brightest star of this group is 
Procyon. It is not more than sixty-five tril- 
lions of miles from us; so its light reaches us 
in a little more than ten years. 

"Let Procyon join to Betelgeuse, 

And pass a line afar 
To reach the point where Sirius glows, 

The most conspicuous star, 
Then will the eye delighted view 

A figure fine and vast; 
Its span is equilateral, 

Triangular its cast." 

Northeast of Orion lies the beautiful con- 
stellation Gemini (jem'i-ni), or the Twins. 
Its principal stars-are" arranged in three rows, 
with two stars in each row. The stars in the 
first row are much brighter than those to the 
west, and are nearer together. These two 
stars are Castor and Pollux. During May 
and the first half of June, these stars hang 
high in the northwestern heavens. A straight 
line drawn through the stars of the handle of 
the Big Dipper, excepting the last star of 
the handle, and on through the lower front 
star of the bowl, and on a distance beyond, 
will pass midway between Castor and Pollux. 



224 IN STARLAND 

These are the stars the apostle Paul men- 
tioned in relating some of the incidents of 
his voyage to Rome. They were supposed 
to influence navigation propitiously. Pollux 
is a triple star, its components showing or- 
ange, gray, and lilac colors. 

Leo, the Lion, is an interesting constella- 
tion, with the principal stars in the shoulder 
of the lion in the form of a sickle. It adorns 
the evening sky from New Year's day until 
June or July. A line drawn through the 
Pointers away from the polestar, and con- 
tinued about forty degrees, will meet Leo. 
Look for this interesting constellation to the 
left and just a little below Gemini, not far 
from the Big Dipper on the side away from 
the pole. Regulus is the bright star in the 
end of the handle of the sickle, and is some- 
times called the Lion's heart. It is not far 
from Procyon. 

"From the time it first attracts our atten- 
tion until Arcturus and Vega come, Regulus 
is the chief ornament of the eastern skies and 
shines like a veritable diamond of the highest 
quality, fit to be set in the jeweled hilt of 
sword or scimitar of fine Damascus steel 
rather than the handle of a homely garden 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 225 

implement." Regulus forms a large triangle 
with Spica and Arcturus at the base. 

It is from Leo that the shooting stars in the 
1833 shower seemed to radiate, "even as a 
fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she 
is shaken of a mighty wind." 

Scorpio is one of the constellations of the 
zodiac. If you want to see Scorpio, with its 
ruddy jewel Antares, at its best, explore the 
southern sky just before bedtime on the 
longest day of the year. At other times, 
draw a line connecting Vega with Altair, and 
from Vega draw a line at right angles to 
this line away from Cygnus, or the Northern 
Cross. Extend this line to meet the first 
bright reddish star, or to a distance of about 
twelve times the distance between the Point- 
ers, and you will have Antares, that great 
sun which is three hundred and seventy light 
years distant from us, and which so recently 
has been computed to have a diameter of 
four hundred and thirty million miles. An- 
tares throws such a soft, friendly light out 
upon the sky, that it readily wins the admira- 
tion of star lovers. 

Other constellations, such as Aquarius, the 
Water Bearer; Cancer, the Crab; Capri- 



226 IN STARLAND 

cornus, the Goat; Cetus, the Whale; Corvus, 
the Crow; Crater, the Cup; Hercules; Hy- 
dra, the Snake; Libra, the Scales; Lupus, the 
Wolf; Sagittarius, the Archer; and Virgo, 
the Virgin, are all worth your making their 
acquaintance. Spica, a bewitching star of 
the first magnitude, is in Virgo. It stands 
alone, there being no other very bright star 
within thirty degrees of it. Spica, Arcturus, 
Denebola, and Cor Caroli form the celebrated 
"Diamond of Virgo." 

If we lived far south of the equator, w T e 
should see a few constellations that we can- 
not see in this latitude. As the southern 
polar constellations came into view, we should 
lose sight of our northern circumpolar frifends. 

While there is no south polar star, there 
is a Southern Cross that is about thirty de- 
grees from the south pole. This consists 
chiefly of four bright stars; but much has 
been written about their splendor. 

Centaurus is another constellation well 
known to us, because its brightest star, Alpha 
Centauri, has the distinction of being the 
nearest to the earth of all the millions of 
stars. That we in this latitude cannot see 
Alpha Centauri is to be regretted. If any 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 227 

of you ever pay a visit to the tropics, do not 
forget, in your sight-seeing, to "lift your 
eyes on high;" for there Alpha Centauri 
reveals itself; so does Canopus, a star that 
vies with Sirius in brilliancy; and Alpha 
Crucis, Achernar, and Beta Centauri. 

Canopus belongs to the constellation Argo 
Navis, or the Southern Ship. This may be 
seen by observers in our most southern states. 
Canopus, like Alpha Centauri, was worshiped 
by the ancient Egyptians. 

Why not make friends with the stars? 
"There is pleasure in the pathless woods;" 
but there is greater pleasure in exploring 
"the infinite meadow r s of heaven." If you 
cultivate close acquaintanceship with the jew- 
els of the sky, you can never be alone, whether 
in China or at home; for in general, the same 
stars will greet you in whatever land you 
may be. 

"To the astronomer, the fixed stars are im- 
movable boundary stones by which he deter- 
mines the courses of the wandering heavenly 
bodies. To the geographer, they are the sig- 
nal stations according to which he surveys the 
chart of the earth by the heavens. To the 
mariner, they are the lights that direct him 



228 IN STARLAND 

over the dark paths of the seas. To the 
hunter, the herdsman, the wanderer, they are 
a clock. To the farmer, they are a calendar. 
The historian finds in them many a memo- 
rable event in the oldest Grecian history; and 
every person of sensibility receives from them 
an impulse to worship, meditation, and hope." 



THE CONSTELLATIONS 



229 



PRONUNCIATION OF NAMES OF 
CONSTELLATIONS 



Andromeda (an-drom'e-da) 
Aquarius (a-kwa/ii-us) 
Aquila (ak'wi-la) 
Argo Navis (ar'gd na'vis) 
Aries (a'ri-ez) 
Auriga (au-ri'ga) 
Bootes (bo-6'tez) 
Camelopardus 

(kam-el-o-par'dus) 
Cancer (kan'ser) 
Canes Venatici (ka'nez 

ve-nat'i-si) 
Canis Major (ka'nis ma'jor) 
Canis Minor (ka'nis mi'nor) 
Capricornus (kap-ri-kor'nus) 
Cassiopeia (kas-si-6-pe'ya) 
Centaurus (sen-taw'rus) 
Cepheus (se'fiis) 
Cetus (se'tus) 
Columba (ko-lum'ba) __ 
Coma Berenices (ko'ma 

ber-e-ni'sez) 
Corona Borealis (ko-ro'na 

bo-re-a'lis) 
Corvus (kor'vus) 
Crater (kra'ter) 
Cygnus (sig'nus) 
Delphinus (del-fi'nus) 
Draco (dra/ko) 
Equuleus (e-kwoo'le-us) 
Eridanus (e-rid'a-nus) 



Gemini (jem'I-nl) 

Hercules (hur'ku-lez) 

Hydra (hy'dra) 

Lacerta (la-sur'ta) 

Leo (le'6) 

Leo Minor (le'6 mi'nor) 

Lepus (le'pus) 

Libra (li'bra) 

Lupus (lu'pus) 

Lynx (links) 

Lyra (ly'ra) 

Monoceros (mo-nos'e-ros) 

Ophiuchus (of-i-u'kus) 

Orion (6-ri'on) 

Pegasus (peg'a-sus) 

Perseus (pur'sus) 

Pisces (pis'ez) 

Piscis Australis (pis'is 

aus-tra'lis) 
Sagitta (sa-jit'ta) 
Sagittarius (saj-i-ta'ri-us) 
Scorpio (skor'pi-o) 
Sculptor (skulp'tor) 
Scutum (skii'tum) 
Serpens (ser'penz) 
Sextans (seks'tanz) 
Taurus (taw'rus) 
Triangulum (tri-ang'gii-lum) 
Ursa Major (ur'sa ma-jor) 
Ursa Minor (ur'sa mi-nor) 
Virgo (vir'go) 
Vulpecula (vul-pek'u-la) 



s 



XII 
SPECTROSCOPE AND SPECTRA 

"By what way is the light parted ?" Job 38: 24. 

IR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727 a.d.) 



was the first to answer the foregoing 
question, though since the flood, the rain- 
bow — that "child of sun and shower" — has 
stood as a silent witness to the fact that light 




The Spectrum 

can be parted, or separated into various col- 
ors. So has every tint of sky, earth, or sea. 
Before Newton's discovery that sunlight con- 
sists of many rays, each capable of producing 
a color all its own, it was thought that the 
colors revealed by passing white light through 
a prism were the result of an actual change 
made in the light by the prism, and not a 

(230) 



SPECTROSCOPE AND SPECTRA 231 

mere spreading out, or separation, of com- 
ponent colors. 

Xewton found that the colors were due to 
the fact that the rays composing white light 
were refracted or bent at different angles, and 
thus were separated. If you place a pencil 
obliquely in a glass of clear water, and look at 
the glass from the side, the pencil will appear 
to be bent. This is because a ray of light in 
passing from one medium into another of dif- 
ferent density, is bent, or refracted. If it 
passes into a denser medium, it is bent toward 
the perpendicular to the surface that separates 
the two media; and if it passes into a rarer, 
or less dense medium, as from water into air, 
it is bent away from the perpendicular. 

The w T ell-known but interesting experiment 
of placing a coin on the bottom of a basin so 
as to be just hidden by the ^ 

edge, and then pouring water II 

into the basin until the coin fl| J£\ 
becomes visible from the same iff' /pf; 
point, is another illustration of ill "At I/ 
this principle of refraction. 11 1/ J, IP 

Since one sees the coin in the Ur^c^) 
direction of the extended bent l^Cj £>>\ 
portion of the ray of light, \ ) / 



232 



IN STARLAND 



the coin seems to have been lifted up or 
shifted from its real position to another one, 
whence it becomes visible, 

When light passes from the air into the 
dense glass of the prism, the rays are re- 
fracted, or bent, the shorter waves being bent 
more than the long ones ; hence the colors are 




dispersed, or separated. The band of colors 
obtained by the refraction, or dispersion, is 
called a spectrum, which is naught "but a slice 
of a rainbow cut crosswise." The spectrum 
obtained when the sunlight is analyzed is 
known as the solar spectrum. Each kind of 
light has its own particular spectrum. It 
might be well for the reader to throw a spec- 
trum on the wall by means of a prism, and 
study it more carefully, perhaps, than he has 
heretofore. 

The generally accepted theory concerning 
light is that it is radiant energy transmitted 



SPECTROSCOPE AND SPECTRA 233 

by the ether that is supposed to fill all space, 
which energy is in the form of waves capable 
of producing the sensation of sight. These 
waves, or vibrations, vary in length and fre- 
quency, according to the color produced when 
they strike the eye, the particular color of a 
light wave depending upon the length of the 
wave, just as the pitch of a tone depends 
upon the length of the sound wave. 

Red light has the longest wave length of 
any visible color, and its rate of vibration is 
the slowest; while violet has the shortest wave 
length, and its rate of vibration is the great- 
est. The length of the red wave is one thirty- 
thousandth of an inch ; and it is produced by 
more than four hundred billion ether waves 
beating upon the retina of the eye a second. 

The violet wave is only one sixty-thou- 
sandth of an inch in length, and it is produced 
by more than seven hundred billion waves a 
second meeting the eye. The red wave is at 
one end of the solar spectrum, and the violet 
at the other end. All other visible rays lie 
between these two colors. Invisible waves 
have been discovered below the red and above 
the violet; these are known as the infra-red 
and the ultra-violet. 



234 IN STARLAND 

Sir William Herschel was the first to dis- 
cover that the spectrum extends beyond 
visible limits, he having discovered infra-red 
waves. Hitherto the thought had not been 
conceived that there could be invisible rays of 
light; but after the existence of infra-red 
waves, some many times as long as the red, 
was confirmed, it was not long before the 
ultra-violet were foujid. The visible spec- 
trum extends from seventy-six hundred to 
thirty-nine hundred units; but by various 
means, emission spectra have been traced be- 
tween the limits of three million one hundred 
and thirty units. 

The X ray, which has attracted so much 
attention since its discovery in 1895, has re- 
cently been found to be one of the invisible 
rays of light some distance beyond the violet 
wave. Its wave length is given as about one 
ten-thousandth of that of the violet wave, and 
its frequency of vibration ten thousand times 
that of the violet wave. The wireless wave 
is a very long wave compared with light 
waves. Some of these reach the length of 
many thousand feet; but they travel with the 
speed of light. 



SPECTROSCOPE AND SPECTRA 235 

The rays toward the red end of the spec- 
trum and below it are chiefly heat rays, while 
those toward the violet end and beyond are 
chiefly chemical, or actinic, rays. The latter 
take our photographs, change the starch in 
unripened fruits and grains to sugar, and 
work other equally interesting and effective 
wonders. 

The spectroscope, the instrument used in 
analyzing light, giving us the various spectra, 
has been of incalculable aid to the astronomer. 
It was produced in 1859, and it has proved 
itself a worthy helpmate of the telescope. It 
has revealed so many interesting things, that 
it is worth the study required to understand 
its structure and workings. In its simplest 
form, the spectroscope consists of two small 
telescopes, with a glass prism mounted be- 
tween their object glasses. The beam of light 
enters through a narrow slit in the first tele- 
scope. Its rays are rendered parallel by the 
object glass in this instrument. The parallel 
rays then pass through the prism, where they 
are bent, or refracted, at different angles, and 
hence pass out of the prism at different an- 
gles, spreading out the colors into a spectrum 
as the observer sees them through the second 



236 IN STARLAND 

telescope. This is what the raindrops in the 
air do to the sunlight to give us the magnifi- 
cent rainbow spectrum. 

For astronomical work, a train of prisms, 
or a "diffraction grating," may be used in the 
place of a single prism. This grating, a piece 
of glass or speculum metal, is ruled with from 
five thousand to twenty thousand straight, 
equidistant lines, which spread or disperse the 
light as does the prism. A mother-of-pearl 
shell beautifully illustrates diffraction; for the 
overlapping of the layers diffracts, or dis- 
perses, the light as does the grating, and gives 
us the shell's characteristic display of color. 
At the Mt. Wilson Observatory, a solar spec- 
trum seventy feet long may be obtained. In 
this, the sodium lines, which are barely sepa- 
rated in the ordinary spectrum, appear more 
than one inch apart. 

The following facts and laws have been 
evolved through the study of the spectra of 
various kinds and combinations of light: 

A continuous spectrum consists of an un- 
broken band of colors; while a discontinuous 
spectrum is a spectrum crossed by dark or 
light lines. All luminous solids and liquids 
give continuous spectra; so do glowing gases 



SPECTROSCOPE AND SPECTRA 237 

under high pressure. The spectrum of a gas 
jet, kerosene lamp, or candle is continuous 
because of the small solid particles of glowing 
carbon in the flame. 

Glowing rarefied vapors and gases give dis- 
continuous spectra. These are made up of 
bright lines. The spectrum of sodium vapor 
is characterized by two bright yellow lines, 
called the D lines, so near together that they 
are often treated as one line. A lithium va- 
por spectrum contains, among many others, a 
splendid red line; hydrogen, three lines, one 
red, one greenish blue, and the other dark blue. 

If a light from a glowing, or incandescent, 
solid or liquid passes through a gas at a 
temperature lower than that of the incandes- 
cent body, the gas absorbs rays of the same 
degree of refrangibility as that of the rays 
which constitute its own spectrum. This is 
what is known as a dark-lined spectrum, and 
the dark lines occupy the same position in the 
spectrum that the bright lines of the gas 
itself would occupy. 

For example, the sodium spectrum consists 
of two bright yellow lines on a comparatively 
dark background. Now if the solar spec- 
trum — that is, the spectrum of sunlight — - 



238 IN STARLAND 

is placed just below the sodium spectrum, a 
dark line will be found in the solar spectrum 
where the yellow lines are in the sodium spec- 
trum. This shows that as the light of the 
photosphere passed through the chromosphere 
of the sun, part of the light was absorbed by 
the chromosphere; and since it was that part 
corresponding to the yellow lines, evidently 
there must be glowing sodium in the chromo- 
sphere of the sun, for 'Vapors of different 
substances absorb or quench the very same 
rays that they are capable of emitting when 
self-luminous." 

The spectrum of iron vapor contains thou- 
sands of bright lines; and these have their 
dark counterparts in the solar spectrum, 
showing the presence of iron in the sun. 

When the uses of the spectroscope are con- 
sidered, the relation to astronomy of all we 
have studied in this chapter becomes ap- 
parent, and the fact is readily admitted that 
the spectroscope, with its close and efficient 
ally, the photographic plate, has given us 
what is termed our "new astronomy." 

ASTRONOMICAL USES OF THE SPECTROSCOPE 

Eighty years ago Auguste Comte said that 
"the chemical constitution and the physical 



SPECTROSCOPE AND SPECTRA 239 

state of the heavenly bodies must forever re- 
main unknown to us." But this savant did 
not reckon with the spectroscope, which be- 
came a factor in astronomical research in 
less than twenty years after his prediction. 
Through it, the composition and structure of 
sun and star have been disclosed. This in- 
strument also tells us much about a star's 
motion — whether it is moving toward or 
from us, at what velocity, and whether it is 
revolving. It reveals, too, the chemical ele- 
ments composing a star, whether it is solid 
or gaseous, and whether it has an atmosphere. 
About half of the known elements have been 
found to exist in the sun. Elements un- 
known upon the earth have been found in 
some of the heavenly bodies. 

The workings of the spectroscope are easily 
understood. We have all noticed the increas- 
ing shrillness of the whistle of a locomotive 
as it nears us at great speed, and we have 
noticed that it grows lower in pitch as the 
train recedes from us. The violet end of the 
spectrum, with its short waves, corresponds 
to the high pitch. So if a star is coming 
toward us at a high velocity, the light waves 
will be shortened, and the dark lines of the 



16 



240 IN STARLAND 

spectrum will be deflected toward the violet 
end. If it is receding, the waves will be 
lengthened, and thus the dark lines will be 
deflected toward the red end. If the lines 
oscillate, it will be known that the body is 
revolving. 

The time of rotation of the sun and planets 
has also been determined by the spectroscope. 
It also makes the study of the chromosphere 
of the sun possible on any clear day. With- 
out it, this scarlet envelope could be seen only 
at times of solar eclipse. 

Light is "the astronomer's necessity"; but 
the foregoing observations show that without 
the spectroscope, it could not render the great- 
est service. 



XIII 
'THE WORLDS AND THE WORD" 

ALL peoples, except those of the very 
lowest culture, are said to have some 
theory concerning the origin of the universe. 
Many of these theories are grotesque ; and the 
best of them are altogether inadequate to ex- 
plain the work of creation unless they are 
based upon the word of the eternal God, the 
Creator of the heavens and the earth. He 
says that the worlds were framed by His 
word: that He spoke, and they stood fast; 
that the creative work pertaining to our earth 
was accomplished in the brief period of six 
days; and that at the end of that time, it 
was perfect before God. 

Some refuse to accept this God-given ex- 
planation, and propound theories of their own 
human reasoning. But they are compelled to 
assume the existence of matter, speculating 
only as to its later divisions and condensa- 
tions into suns, planets, and satellites. They 
have found no way of creating the material, 
or "star dust," out of which the heavenly 
bodies are made. 

(241) 



242 IN STARLAND 

Some ostensibly give Omnipotent Power 
the credit for the creation of the original 
matter; but the fact that such renounce the 
Lord's statement concerning the time and 
method employed in the creation of this 
world, destroys faith in the Word and even- 
tually in its Author. 

Why not take a perfect world from the 
hand of an all-wise Creator as quickly as a 
nebulous mass of matter endowed with gravi- 
tation and motion? 

One of these man-proposed theories of the 
origin of our solar system, the nebular hy- 
pothesis, claimed wide attention during the 
last century. It was evolved chiefly from the 
speculations of an eminent Frenchman, La- 
place. He was a brilliant man, being recog- 
nized as the greatest of French mathema- 
ticians; and so profound was his knowledge 
of celestial mechanics, that he is called "the 
Newton of France." He is charged, how- 
ever, with one grave fault, which his con- 
temporaries deplored, — that of using the theo- 
ries, calculations, and discoveries of others as 
if they were his own, giving credit to himself 
only. Perhaps this is why he was so ready 
to rob the Creator of the worlds of His pre- 



"the worlds and the word" 243 

rogative; for Laplace fearlessly announced 
that he could construct the worlds without a 
god; he "had no need of the hypothesis of 
a god." Emboldened by these assumptions, 
later scientists essayed to fill the infinitudes of 
space with suns and systems of suns after 
the same plan; while others adapted the basic 
principle of the Laplacian theory to all cre- 
ated things. 

The theory propounded by Laplace in 1796 
presented at the beginning of the develop- 
ment of our solar system a ready-made sun 
with a nebulous or highly heated gaseous 
envelope filling all the limits of our system to 
Xeptune. This nebulous mass, he concedes, 
had been endowed with a slow rotary move- 
ment. As it cooled, it contracted, and becom- 
ing smaller, increased in velocity; so that in 
time, the centrifugal force equaled gravity, 
and a ring of this gaseous matter separated, 
or flew off, from the sun. This ring con- 
tinued to rotate, and finally broke; and some 
portion of it, presumably, being a little more 
dense than the rest, gathered the other parts 
about it, and developed into an independent 
body revolving around the parent nebula. 
This was the beginning of Neptune. In time, 



244 IN STARLAND 

this offspring threw off a ring, which became 
a satellite revolving about it. The original 
nebula, as it cooled, continued to throw off 
rings; and the planets formed from these 
rings, in turn threw off rings, which devel- 
oped into satellites. An ingenious idea, but 
gravely false! Well might the Lord have 
said to the author of this speculation, "Where 
wast thou when I laid the foundations of 
the earth, since thou understandest so fully 
how I wrought the work?" 

The interesting way in which Laplace first 
presented this novel theory to the world, 
brought to it immediate and favorable atten- 
tion, though he is said to have offered it with 
diffidence, knowing that his speculations were 
unfortified by proofs. 

The thinkers of his time, being captivated 
by his logic, acquiesced in the theory; and for 
more than a century, his self-created world 
theory dominated scientific thought. Through 
this source, it insidiously found its way into 
the world's literature and schools, until people 
generally, without sensing its real spirit of 
infidelity, accepted it. 

As we have said before, the theory came to 
be applied in an adapted form to the origin 



"the worlds and the word" 245 

of all material things; even man, who was 
made in the image of God, being counted an 
accident, not a creation planned and executed 
by the Infinite Mind. Mr. Darwin sees him 
in the dim ages of the past, by some twist of 
fate, blindly forsaking his apish ancestry, and 
developing into the most intelligent creation. 

Time is the test of all things; and under 
this test, many of man's most cherished, fine- 
spun theories and hypotheses have proved of 
little worth. The Laplacian theory is one of 
these. With new discoveries, and the exact 
observations that have come with increased 
astronomical facilities, the theory has received 
an adverse pronouncement from the savants, 
except in its basal idea, that of evolution. 

Those who readily relinquish the Word of 
God, which has stood the test of the ages, for 
some man-made theory, need not wonder 
when they see the walls of their pet ideas 
crumbling. It is better to "hold fast that 
which is good;" better to "buy the truth, and 
sell it not," for truth is eternal. The most 
popular error in time will be supplanted by 
truth or by some new error. 

Garrett P. Serviss, in "Curiosities of the 
Sky," says that "Laplace's hypothesis can 



246 IN STARLAND 

certainly find no standing ground either in 
the Orion nebula or in those of a spiral con- 
figuration. Some other hypothesis more con- 
sonant with the appearances must be found." 

Professor Moulton, of Chicago University, 
says, "It is certain now that the ring hypothe- 
sis as to the origin of the planets can no 
longer be held as a possibility." 

Professor Proctor, an astronomer of note, 
savs, "There is no observable evidence in the 
heavens confirmatory of the nebular hy- 
pothesis." 

Professor Harold Jacoby, of Columbia 
University, after stating several points where 
the Laplacian theory does not accord with 
fact, lays down this principle: "As a matter 
of logic, a correct theory must explain every 
observed fact within its range. A single con- 
trary observation may destroy logically an 
entire theory, no matter how many observa- 
tions seem to confirm it." 

According to this reasoning, the Laplacian 
theory has heard its death knell; for many 
"contrary observations" have been made 
against it. Some of these to which astrono- 
mers direct attention follow: 



"THE V 0RL1JS AND THE W0R1)" 247 

The orbits of the remote planets are more 
nearly circular than those which are nearer 
the sun. The correct working of the theory 
would require the opposite condition. 

The theory calls for concentric orbits of all 
the planets, no intersecting of one orbit by 
another. The orbits of hundreds of the minor 
planets so intersect and interweave that it is 
said that if they were made of wire, one 
could not be removed without taking all of 
them. Laplace did not reckon with these, for 
they were unknown in his day. 

The theory demands that not only the 
planets, but all their satellites, shall revolve 
in the same direction. The tw r o outer satel- 
lites of Jupiter, "and also the outermost of 
Saturn, revolve in the opposite direction from 
what the theory demands. These, too, had 
not been discovered in Laplace's time. 

The theory demands that no satellite shall 
revolve around its planet at a greater speed 
than the planet rotates. The inner moon of 
Mars refuses to heed this limitation, and 
bounds away at a speed three times what it 
should have, performing a revolution in eight 
hours, while Mars requires twenty-four hours 



248 IN STARLAND 

to make a rotation on its axis. The inner 
ring of Saturn also completes a revolution 
while the planet turns only half way over. 

The thousands of nebulae that have been 
studied do not accord with conditions de- 
manded of nebulse by the ring hypothesis. 

Why continue to list discrepancies? The 
theory as a theory is dead. Present-day as- 
tronomers pronounce it so. Some have al- 
ready essayed to build upon its remains 
another theory; but this is more fantastic and 
speculative than the Laplacian. Surely here 
is where the wisdom of man is foolishness 
with God. 

Though the theory as a whole is found un- 
tenable, it has done its deadly work. From 
the evolution of worlds to the evolution of 
life was but a step. The evolution idea has 
fastened itself upon all creation. It perme- 
ates the world's thought and life. It has 
subtly undermined the faith of the people 
in God's Word, and therefore in God Him- 
self. Surely the Saviour suggests this faith- 
less condition when He asks, "Nevertheless 
when the Son of man cometh, shall He find 
faith on the earth?" 



"the worlds and the word" 249 

Sometime men will come to know that "the 
worlds and the Word speak but one language, 
teach but one set of truths." 

The peerless orator, W. J. Bryan, is one 
among a few thinking men and women of 
this time who sense the insidious evil lurking 
in the theory of evolution. When men dis- 
card a part of the Bible for cold human 
speculations, they soon lose faith in the rest 
of the Word, and their religious foundation 
is removed. Without enlightened religious 
convictions, civilization dies. Sensing the 
imperative need of reform, Mr. Bryan is 
devoting his gifts to the work of reclaiming 
the people to the faith of their fathers by 
denouncing fearlessly the evolution idea, as 
applied to any phase of the original creative 
work. He appeals to all worshipers of a 
miracle-working God to help "bring the 
world back to a real belief in God and to the 
Bible as an authoritative guide." Surely we 
who have heard the call of Revelation 14, 
"Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, 
and the sea, and the fountains of waters," 
can answer this appeal whole-heartedly. 

Every song is said to close "with the key- 
note with which it began, and the brief ca- 



250 IN STARLAND 

dence at the close hints the realms of sound 
through which it has tried its wings ;" so this 
volume closes with the alpha keynote: "The 
heavens declare the glory of God; and the 
firmament showeth His handiwork. Day 
unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
night showeth knowledge." Happy are they 
who find nightly pleasure in beholding and 
contemplating the heavenly vision as por- 
trayed in the blue of the celestial sphere. 









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BHHI H 



